ILLUSTRATIONS, 43 



f he expense requisite to effect these several purposes far exceeding the calcu- 

 lations the proprietor had originally formed, and being desirous of perpetuating 

 the institution,, he was induced to offer the whole establishment for sale to the 

 state. An almost entire unanimity prevailing among the medical faculty re- 

 lative to the advantage to be derived from- an institution of the kind, as"liighly 

 necessary to complete a system of medical instruction, and similar sentiments 

 being entertained by many others who felt an interest in the literary reputation 

 of the state, application was made to the legislature that provision might be ob- 

 tained for the purchase of the Botanic Garden. On this occasion memorials 

 were presented by the state medical society, ti*e medical society of the city and 

 county of New- York, and of the counties of Duchess, Ulster, Niagara, Saratoga, 

 Clinton, &c. by the corporation of the city, the governors of the New-York Hos 

 pital, the students attending the medical schools, and from many of the most 

 respectable inhabitants of this city ; and the zeal manifested upon this subject 

 reflects much credit upon the officers and members of these respective associa- 

 tions. The Botanic Garden accordingly became the property of the stite of 

 New York, by an act of their legislature, passed on the 12th of March, 1810. 

 The honourable the regents of the university, immediately upon this purchase 

 being effected, allotted that extensive botanical establishment to the use of the 

 College of Physicians and Surgeons, for the laudable purpose contemplated by 

 the legislature. The late proceedings of the legislature, in relation to the Bo- 

 tanic Garden, have been stated elsewhere. It is proper to add that the enter- 

 prising and public- spirited founder of this institution, dr. Hosack, in 1811, pub- 

 lished a second edition, enlarged, of the Hortus Elgintnsis, or a Catalogue of 

 l/i6 Plants, indigenous and exotic, cultivated in the Elgin Botanic Garden, 

 arranged in alphabetical order, and embracing the generic and specific names of 

 Linnaeus, the synonymes of various authors, the popular appellations by which 

 they are known, the use of the different plants in medicine and the arts, &c. 

 See a Statement of Facts relative to the establishment and Progress of the Elgin 

 Botanic Garden, and the, Subsequent Disposal of the same to the State of Aew- 

 York ; Hortus Elginensis : American Medical and Philosophical Register, vol. 

 2. from which most of the preceding account has been taken. 



It is ardently hoped that an institution so honourable to the individual by 

 whom it was originally projected, and by whose care a$ Juni6ccnce it ha? 

 been eminently conducive to the promotion of the science of botany, may not 

 be impaired in its character or usefulness through any want of public support ; 

 :,nd it is respectfully suggested that nothing could more effectually secure 

 the important objects of tins institution than some permanent prov ision made 

 by the legislature, and the annexation to the establishment of a botanical pr<> 

 hio, 



