September 4, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



291 



plants and material for the garden, and a 

 list of species that it could furnish to kin- 

 dred institutions. This garden was evi- 

 dently short-lived, inasmuch as in Eafin- 

 esque's ' Neogenyton ' of the following year, 

 1825, he remarks, '^ I mean, therefore, to 

 indicate and propose in this small essay, 

 many of the numerous new genera of plants 

 detected or ascertained, some of which were 

 indicated last year, 1824, in the Catalogue 

 of the botanical garden which I have tried 

 in vain to establish in Lexington." 



The principal gardens at present operated 

 and in course of development in the United 

 States are as follows : 



1. The' Botanic Garden of Harvard Uni- 

 versity, at Cambridge, Mass., founded in 

 1805. There are about seven acres of land 

 under cultivation, a small greenhouse, and 

 a famous herbarium and library from which 

 have flowed during the past 40 years volumi- 

 nous and invaluable contributions to tax- 

 onomy and morphology, especially of ITorth 

 American plants. There is also a small 

 morphologic laboratory. The main labora- 

 tories and museums connected with the in- 

 stitution are situated in other of the Har- 

 vard buildings, a short distance away. The 

 system of garden, libraries, museum, labora- 

 tories and herbaria operated by Harvard 

 College is one of the most complete in ex- 

 istence. It is hard to say, indeed, in what 

 respect it is not ideal, except in the rather 

 wide distance separating the several ele- 

 ments and the small amount of land avail- 

 able for planting. 



2. The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard 

 University, at Jamaica Plain, Mass., was 

 founded through a bequest of $100,000, made 

 about 1870, by Mr. James Arnold, of Provi- 

 dence, E. I., to three trustees, to be used 

 for the improvement of agriculture or hor- 

 ticulture. The trustees wisely determined 

 to devote it to forestry and dendrology, and 

 effected cooperative agreements with Har- 

 vard College and the City of Boston, which 



have now given us the greatest tree museum 

 in existence, freely open to the visiting 

 public. The planted area is about 160 

 acres, and will be materially increased in 

 size. A small museum, library and herba- 

 rium building has been erected near the 

 main entrance. The great Silva of North 

 America and the journal Garden and Forest 

 are noteworthy publications from this noble 

 institution. 



3. The Botanic Gardens of the United 

 States Department of Agriculture, at "Wash- 

 ington, have an extensive range of green- 

 houses and a large tract of land under cul- 

 tivation. The herbarium of the depart- 

 ment, now deposited with the United States 

 National Museum, is very large and is at 

 present increasing more rapidly than any 

 other in America. There is a somewhat 

 effective working library, which greatly 

 needs material enlargement, and several 

 poorly located and equipped laboratories, 

 in which a vast amount of important in- 

 vestigation is being accomplished, under 

 very unfavorable conditions, which urgently 

 demand improvement. Publications in- 

 clude : Bulletin of the Botanical Division, 

 Bulletin of the Division of Forestry, Bulle- 

 tin of the Division of Plant Pathology and 

 Physiology, Contributions from the United 

 States National Herbarium, Year-book of 

 the United States Department of Agricul- 

 ture, and circulars of the several divisions. 



4. The Missouri Botanical Garden, at St. 

 Louis, .Mo., was established in 1889, 

 through the provisions of the will of Mr. 

 Henry Shaw, who for over thirty years pre- 

 viously had been bringing together material 

 for it on the land about his residence, which 

 was known as Shaw's Garden. There were 

 in all some 670 acres devised to the institu- 

 tion under the will of the generous and 

 philanthropic founder, and from the income 

 yielded by much of this land, not nearly 

 all the area being required for garden pur- 

 poses, the institution derives its large main- 



