( 324 ) 
his memory. His botanical library has been given by that 
institution to the New York Botanical Garden in Bronx Park. 
Tue FouNnpDING OF THE GARDEN. 
Soon after his appointment in 1798, Dr. Hosack desired 
Columbia College to apply a small sum annually for a botan- 
ical garden, as an aid in the study of materia medica. A com- 
mittee recommended £300 annually; but the trustees dis- 
allowed it for lack of funds. In 1800 he applied to the state 
legislature to aid in the same project, but without success. He 
then determined to undertake the work with his own means, 
trusting that when developed the garden would command 
public support. 
Accordingly in 1801 he bought of the city four plots of the 
“* common lands ” (Nos. 54, 55, 60 and 61) in all about twenty 
acres, or 256 city lots, extending from 47th Street to 51st 
Street and from Middle Road (now Fifth Ave.) westward to 
a line about 100 feet east of Sixth Avenue. The deed was 
dated and executed by Mayor De Witt Clinton August 6, 1804. 
It conveyed to David Hosack the above four plots for 
$4,807.36 in money, and a quit rent of sixteen bushels of 
good merchantable wheat to be paid every May 1 in kind, or 
its equivalent in gold or silver coin.* These quit rents were 
in 1810 commuted and released for $285.71; and in exchange 
for the city’s rights in the streets through the four lots, he 
conveyed to the city in December, 1810, plot No. 84 of the 
common lands, of about five acres on 57th Street.t As the 
garden work was begun in 1801, probably that was the date of 
the purchase and first part payment, the deed in 1804 being 
given on the complete payment of the price. 
The development of the garden was pushed forward with 
the energy and success of an enthusiast. Dr. Hosack’s 
acquaintance with scientific men abroad greatly aided him in 
obtaining plants, seeds, shrubs and trees from every quarter. 
By 1806 the grounds, he says, were sais under cultivation, 
~ * Recorded in Comptroller’s office, Vol. 1, fol. 62. 
t Deed dated December 31, 1810. se in Reg. office, Liber 323, p. 534. 
