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We have also recommended to the Board the consideration 
of the project of placing four statues on the empty pedestals 
directly in front of the museum building as originally con- 
templated in the plans of the architect. We have selected 
for these subjects four men who have primarily been con- 
nected with the development of science and particularly of 
botany in New York, and through that city’s commanding 
influence, with the development of the botany of the entire 
country. In making the selection of four men notable in the 
annals of science, we believe that no more worthy choice 
could be made in order to commemorate the historical devel- 
opment of botany and botanical institutions in New York 
than Mitchill, Hosack, Torrey, and Newberry. 
1. Samuel Latham Mitchill, Member of Congress (1800- 
1804, 1810-1812), and of the U. S. Senate (1804-1809), 
Professor of Botany in Columbia (1793-1795), and in the 
College of Physicians and Surgeons (1820-1826), Founder 
of the Lyceum of Natural History (now the New York 
Academy of Sciences), first and foremost in his day in pro- 
moting the interests of science and medicine, ‘one of the 
most versatile and remarkable of men.” To Mitchill we 
would give first place as founder and patron of science in 
New York. 
2. David Hosack, Professor of Botany in Columbia (1795- 
1811), founder of the famous Elgin Gardens, the first move- 
ment towards a public botanical garden in New York City 
(x801), inspiring force in the early dissemination of botanical 
instruction in New York and throughout the country. To 
Hosack we would give second place as founder of botanical 
institutions and pioneer teacher of botany in New York. 
3. John Torrey, Professor of Botany in the College of 
Physicians and Surgeons (1860-1873), first among the stu- 
dents of the local flora of New York, projector and senior 
author of the classic Flora of North America, with world- 
wide reputation as a distinguished botanist and botanical 
writer, whose collections form the nucleus of our present 
botanical development and give to it a historic value and im- 
