230 [Assembly 



their products, or for ornament," respectfully subnoit the following 

 report : 



The great advantages to the whole Union which may be derived 

 from the introduction and culture of the plants of the tropics, and of 

 the temperate zones, not indigenous to the United States, which 

 may be rendered subservient to the interests of the mechanical and 

 manufacturing industry of the country, and increase the variety and 

 value of our exports, as well as augment the number and species of 

 fruit and ornamental trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants, by the es- 

 tablishment of an experimental garden in the southern extremity of 

 the United States, is a subject worthy the serious consideration of 

 every citizen, and the State and the general governments. 



Thus far the cultivators of the soil have been indebted to individ- 

 ual enterprise and liberality for all the vegetable productions which 

 have been introduced from foreign countries, previous to the return 

 of the exploring expedition, so well conducted by Captain Wilkes; 

 and for all the experiments which have been made for the benefit of 

 the numerous departments of native industry, the projectors have 

 been indebted for aid more to individual effort than to legislative 

 enactment. When it is considered that this republic has been so 

 long and efficiently established, that its population has been extend- 

 ed over a vast extent of territory, varied in its climate, products and 

 soil, and that its position has become exalted among the powerful 

 nations of the earth, it is to be presumed that the government will 

 be emulous to afford to all classes of the people as effectual means 

 of a vigorous and rapid progression in the development of all the 

 arts of exalted civilization, as has been secured to the subjects of 

 the most enlightened empires of the Eastern continent. 



The sovereigns of France and England have long since founded 

 extensive botanical, experimental and acclimative gardens in their 

 capitals, as well as in the southern extreme of their 'domains. 



The " Jardin des Plantes," of Paris, is justly celebrated; the bo- 

 tanical garden at Montpelier, is of scarcelv inferior value, and the 

 horticultural enterprise and energy of the French is farther develo- 

 pinn- itself in the establishment of an extensive botanic garden in 

 Algiers. Eroni the reigns of Louis XlVth, and Peter the Great, ag- 

 riculture, horticulture, and botany, have especially claimed the at- 

 tention of those monarchs. The royal gardens of the French, with 

 those at St. Petersburgh and on the shores of the Crimea, are cele- 



