Vol. 6 No. 6 



TORREYA 



June, 1906 



A HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE DEVELOPMENThbrary 

 OF BOTANY IN NEW YORK CITY.* new YORK 



BOTANICAL 



Bv HENRY H. RUSBY. GARDEN. 



It is my purpose this afternoon to direct your attention to the 

 influences whose workings have brought into existence the pres- 

 ent highly satisfactory organization of botanical work in this city. 

 Among many minor elements, three stand out prominently, and 

 call for our special attention. They are : ( i) local botanical 

 gardens, including the present one, and the persons who have 

 been associated in their management; (2) the botanical depart- 

 ment of Columbia College ; (3) the Torrey Botanical Club. 



Were we to commence with the very earliest botanical history 

 of our city, we should be carried back to a time when, as an im- 

 portant seaport in a new world, it was made the temporary head- 

 quarters of visiting botanists, who accumulated here their collec- 

 tions, maintaining some of them in a living condition, until the 

 arrival of a convenient opportunity for dispatching them to the 

 mother countries. Such occurrences as these, exerting little in- 

 fluence in the permanent development of a botanical center here, 

 occupy noplace in to-day's consideration. Developmental work 

 of the kind that concerns us was active, previous to the close of 

 the 1 8th century, at some points farther south, especially at Phila- 

 delphia, and in New England, but not at New York. 



The first important event here was the work of Doctor, after- 

 ward Governor, Cadwallader Colden and his daughter Jane, who, 

 near the middle of the i8th century, conducted their studies with 

 the aid of a small botanical garden at their home, near Newburgh. 



* An address delivered before the Torrey Botanical Club at a special meeting held 

 on May 23, 1906, in commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the commencement 

 of work in the development of the New York Botanical Garden. 

 [No. 5, Vol. 6, of ToRREYA, comprising pages 81-100, was issued May 23, 1906.] 



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