Biological Institutions 63 



large enough to permit them to turn around easily, and 

 where the "convicts" dragged out a miserable existence for 

 a few years until relieved by death, seldom leaving offspring 

 to inherit their unhappy fate. Today, in gardens such as 

 those in New York and Washington, the animals are kept, 

 as far as may be, in large open enclosures, where they can 

 live under as nearly natural conditions as possible. Under 

 such conditions they are healthy and contented and frequently 

 rear families. 



But the New York Zoological Society has not confined 

 itself solely to the show business. Its studies of wild life 

 have been its most valuable contributions both to science and 

 popular education, and today our inhabitants of land and 

 sea, our dwellers in forest, field, and lake and river are be- 

 coming objects of familiar acquaintance through the writings 

 of Hornaday, Ditmars and Townsend, as well as through the 

 splendid collections at the "Bronx" and the "Battery" in 

 New York City. 



A recent and important enterprise of the Society is the 

 Tropical Research Station at Kalacoon, near Georgetown, in 

 British Guiana, with C. W. Beebe, curator of birds at the 

 New York Zoological Park, as its director. The object of 

 this station is a study of life in the tropical jungle, with 

 the more ample equipment of the permanent laboratory 

 taking the place of the scanty means of the exploring 

 naturalist, through whose labors our knowledge of tropical 

 life has thus far mainly been acquired. The recent estab- 

 lishment of this station, with its more or less improvised 

 equipment, has not led to any large results thus far, although 

 a number of delightful essays by the director recently pub- 

 lished under the title of "Jungle Peace" form a distinct 

 contribution both to literature and to popular science. 



The first botanical garden in America was that of John 

 Bartram in Philadelphia, to which brief reference has been 

 made in the previous chapter. 



One of the pioneer figures in American botany was Geo. 

 Engelmann, the St. Louis botanist-physician, contemporary 

 of Gray at Harvard and Torrey at Columbia. Engelmann 

 had a friend in Henry Shaw the wealthy merchant and lover 

 of plants. During his extensive travels in Europe Shaw 

 formed the idea of a botanical garden at his country place 

 on the outskirts of St. Louis. From Engelmann he obtained 

 advice and encouragement, and through him started a library 

 and herbarium. Upon Engelmann 's death in 1885 Mr. Shaw 

 founded the Henry Shaw School of Botany in Washington 

 University and in it established the Engelmann professorship 

 in memory of his friend and tutor. On Mr. Shaw's death 



