198 
death in 1822 appeared inevitable. In those circumstances the 
Emperor Alexander decided on the complete reorganization of 
the old garden on Apothecaries’ Island, and F. E. L. Fischer, 
who since 1804 had directed the po at Gorenki with so much 
success, was entrusted with t 
as begun early in es and proceeded with such rapidity 
that three years later the last of the glasshouses was completed. 
Their total length ran to about 1,600 m.* and they cost over 
£19,000. At the same time a sum of £3,178 was granted for 
the purchase of plants and the annual budget of the Garden was 
fixed at about £2,200. In 1824 F. E. L. Fischer himself went 
abroad to visit the more important Gardens of Germany, France 
and England, returning with 3,230 species of living plants. In 
England Fischer visited the Royal Gardens at Kew, the garden 
of the eras Society, Chiswick, and the Botanic Gardens 
of Chelsea, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Liverpool. In London 
alone no punches amounted to about £1,600, whilst the 
plants presented were estimated to have equalled if not exceeded 
that sum in value. Falderman, a gardener with the Royal 
Horticultural Society, was engaged as head gardener for St. 
Petersburg, and he and Goldie, another English gardener who 
had travelled in America, were entrusted with the task of taking 
the collection of treasures safely to St. Petersburg. By 1830 the 
number of species in cultivation had risen to over 12,000. At 
the same time the great library of the Gorenki garden and that 
of Dr. Stephan were taken over and an annual grant of £180 made 
for the maintenance of the library. Thus the foundation was 
laid for a botanical library which as to completeness has for a 
long time been unequalled and even now has but few rivals in 
‘tthe world. In a similar way provision was made for the estab- 
lishment of a herbarium, the nucleus of which was formed by 
what was then left of Professor Stephan’s Russian collections, 
oe echt (in lore, 4 1831, p. 99) says: ‘'750 Sarschinen oder o englische 
Us sasheen"’ is equal to 7 ft. (En, cae ee must be 
some iistake in this statement. The conversion into meters was made from the 
sions as given in "‘sasheens.” 
+ This is the figure given by Fischer himself in Verhandl. Verein. Befér 
oO in d. K. Preuss. Staat., 1844, p. 3 (reprint); see also English nie 
in Bot. Mag., Vol. LXXI, at end, p. 26. 
