[Vol, 2 

 216 ANNALS OF THE MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN 



would be a most unfortunate occurrence should the activities 

 of this important garden, small though it is, be in any way 

 curtailed or its functions abrogated by the change in its ad- 

 ministration or owing to the establishment of the new National 

 Garden. 1 



In America,^ botanic gardens have been in existence since 

 the year 1728, when John Bartram founded a botanical garden 

 in Philadelphia. Though no longer a botanic garden, the plot 

 of ground still remains and serves as an interesting landmark 

 in the history of North American botany.^ The foundation 

 of the Elgin Botanic Garden by Dr. David Hosack, in 1801, 

 was an important advance and the Garden of some twenty 

 acres was gradually stocked with a large and valuable collec- 

 tion of plants.^ In 1810 it became the Botanic Garden of the 

 State of New York and was subsequently granted to Columbia 

 College. It has ceased to exist as a garden, but it will be 

 always held in remembrance from its association with the 

 work of its founder, of Amos Eaton, John Torrey, and Asa 

 Gray. 



The founding of the New York Botanical Garden, as a 

 result of the untiring energy of Dr. N. L. Britton and the 

 Torrey Botanical Club, may be regarded as a worthy monu- 

 ment to the memory of these pioneers in American botany. 

 Furnished as it is with the Torrey Herbarium, the value of 

 which has been enhanced by vast acquisitions — including the 

 Chapman and Meisner herbaria — , the library, museum, and 

 laboratories, the New York Botanical Garden, in association 

 with the Department of Botany of Columbia University, rivals 



• other botanic gardens and stations in Africa have been established in 

 Uganda, in the British and Frencli West African Colonies and at Victoria in the 

 German Cameroons. In Algeria there is the line old "Jardin d'essai" at Algiers. 



' In Canada there is a botanic garden at Ottawa in connection with the Agri- 

 cultural Department, and a small garden at Montreal belonging to the botanical 

 department of McGill University. 



' Bartram, through Peter CoUinson, appears to have received seeds from 

 Philip Miller of the Chelsea Physic Garden. See Wilbert, M. I. Some early 

 botanical and herb gardens. Am. Jour. Phar. 80: 412^27. 1908. [See p. 416.] 



' Hosack, David. A statement of facts relative to the establishment and 

 progress of the Elgin Botanic Garden, etc. New York, 1811. 



Wilbert, M. I. Loc. cit. p. 423. 



