648 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLV. No. 1174 



THE IDEALS AND OPPORTUNITIES 

 FOR A BOTANIC GARDEN i 



I HOLD in my hand a rare and, especially 

 on this occasion, exceedingly interesting lit- 

 tle volume. Its title is "Address at the In- 

 auguration of the Hunt Botanical Garden, 

 in Brooklyn, N. T.," delivered in the 

 Athenaeum at the vernal exhibition of flow- 

 ers of the Brooklyn Horticultural Society, 

 on the evening of April 11, 1855, by Fran- 

 cis Vinton. Sixty-two years ago, almost to 

 a day was inaugurated the first effort to es- 

 tablish a botanic garden in Brooklyn. 



Apparently no enterprise could have 

 been launched under more auspicious cir- 

 cumstances. Thomas Hunt, after whom 

 the Garden was named, endowed it with 

 fifty thousand dollars in money and one 

 third of the ground which the garden was 

 to occupy, estimated to be worth at that 

 time ten thousand dollars. This was a large 

 endowment and a specially munificent gift 

 for the year 1855. 



In addition to Mr. Hunt's endowment, 

 William C. Langley, Esq., gave one third 

 of the land and five thousand dollars in 

 money, while Henry A. Kent, Esq., gave 

 the remaining third of the garden plot and 

 twenty-five hundred dollars in money. 

 The total value of the endowment, in money 

 and land, was thus $87,500, or nearly $10,- 

 000 more than the endowment of the Brook- 

 lyn Botanic Garden after seven years of 

 existence. 



Said the optimistic orator on that occa- 

 sion: 



Let this night of the inauguration of the hor- 

 ticultural garden ever be the anniversary of the 

 successful enterprise that, year after year, shall 

 bless, more and more, the young and the aged, the 

 rich and the poor, young men and maidens, old 

 men and children, parents and friends, to the 

 latest generation. 



Alas, for the best laid plans of mice and 



1 Address at the dedication of the laboratory 

 building and plant houses of the Brooklyn Botanic 

 Garden, April 19, 1917. 



men! The institution, apparently so 

 firmly established, proved to be, not a per- 

 ennial, but an annual plant. At the close 

 of one year, owing to a combination of cir- 

 cumstances, the land (located on Fifth and 

 Sixth Avenues, between 57th and 60th 

 Streets) and also the cash endowments, re- 

 verted to the original donors, and the Hunt 

 Botanical Garden has perhaps never been 

 publicly heard of in Brooklyn from that 

 year until the present moment. 



The institution whose main building we 

 dedicate to-night is the third botanic gar- 

 den projected within the city limits of 

 Brooklyn. The second one is designated 

 and laid out in the original plans for Pros- 

 pect Park, but so far as I can learn, its 

 realization was never attempted. 



As President Healy has already noted, 

 the first suggestion for our institution came 

 from the late Professor Franklin W. 

 Hooper, but the idea of having it adminis- 

 tered as a department of the Brooklyn In- 

 stitute of Arts and Sciences, in cooperation 

 with the city of New York, was made by 

 Mr. Alfred T. White, chairman of the Bo- 

 tanic Garden Governing Committee of the 

 Institute trustees. Not the least of my 

 pleasures in giving a brief address this 

 evening is to make grateful public acknowl- 

 edgement, not only of the generous gifts of 

 Mr. White and his two sisters, but of his 

 untiring devotion to the interests of the 

 Garden, and his personal interest in and 

 attention to everything that concerns its 

 welfare, and especially its usefulness to 

 this community. 



The first rough plans for the laboratory 

 building and plant houses were prepared 

 by the present director of the Garden at 

 Columbia, Missouri, in January, 1910, and 

 submitted to the architects, Messrs. McKim, 

 Mead & White for study and elaboration. 



The appointment of the director, made in 

 Pe^bruary, 1910, took effect on July 1 of 

 the same year. On the fourteenth of the 



