196 
Waldheim, dealing with the history and the functions, past and 
present, of the Garden, and the reading of the addresses, first 
of the foreign delegates and then of the representatives of the 
Russian learned societies and corporations and other bodies 
connected with botany. The address embodying the greetings 
and congratulations of Kew runs as follows: 
“On the Occasion of the Two Hundredth Anniversary of the 
foundation of the Imperial Botanic Garden, St. Petersburg, the 
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, beg to join with other Botanical 
Establishments throughout the world in the expression of warm 
congratulations and good wishes. 
“The cordial relations which in the past have subsisted 
between the sister institutions have benefited both gardens and 
furthered the cause of that science to which the two are devoted. 
That these relations may be as distinctive of the future, that the 
services of the Imperial Garden to science may be as marked, and 
that its welfare and renown may be as great as in the past is the 
cordial wish of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew.” 
HisTory OF THE GARDEN 
The Botanic Garden of St. Petersburg was founded by Peter 
the Great about 1713. The date usually given is the 11th Febru- 
ary (old style), ie but Lipsky has been able to prove from 
documentary evidence that it was in existence at least as long 
ago as the 11th eae (old style), 1713. There are therefore 
only ten years between the foundation of St. ene itself 
and that of its Botanic Garden. If the laying out of the capital 
on the marshy banks and islands of the Neva was a bold and 
hazardous enterprise which only the genius and the iron will of 
the great ruler could carry out, the foundation of a garden on 
such ground was in its own way a no less bold experiment. The 
site selected for the garden was on one of the northern islands in 
he angle formed by the Greater Nevka and a small branch of 
the latter, the Karpowka. It was very low and consequently 
much exposed to floods. The primary object of the ae was 
the cultivation of medicinal plants for the arm avy 
Hence its designation as Apothecaries’ Garden and of : island 
