196 Account of the Botanic Garden 



Smclair ^ Moore have commenced a nursery at Baltimore, 

 principally, I believe, for propagating fruit trees. 



Respectfully, 

 AlbauT/, New York, Feb. 6. 1828. J. Buel. 



Art. II. Some Account of the Botanic Garden of the Univer- 

 sity of Copenhagen. By J. W. Hornemann, Professor of 

 Botany, Knight of Dannebrog, F.H.S. Translated and 

 communicated by M. Jens P. Petersen of Copenhagen. 



To collect from our own and distant countries the plants 

 which adorn the earth, and are serviceable to its inhabitants, 

 and to cultivate and arrange them together, in a suitable spot, 

 whether according to their natural affinities or otherwise, are 

 the objects and uses of a botanic garden. Such collections 

 materially assist the student to obtain a general knowledge of 

 vegetation ; and though they have been hitherto formed on 

 too mixed a character for the purposes of natural classifi- 

 cation, yet, being displayed on a small space, the enquirer is 

 enabled to explore, in a short time, the vast domain of 

 Flora. For this purpose, botanic gardens have always been 

 considered of great importance, and especially to seats of 

 learning. The Italians were the first to adopt the idea ; soon 

 afterwards it was introduced - into France. Thence it was 

 transferred to the north of Europe, about the end of the six- 

 teenth century; and Denmark had the honour of possessing a 

 botanic garden in her own territory, before such a thing ap- 

 peared in the neighbouring realms. 



In 1600, a medical botanic garden was established at the 

 university's buildings in Copenhagen ; but it was feebly sup- 

 ported, and on so small a scale, that the united zeal of O. 

 "Worm, J. Tuiren, Simon Pauli, the Bartolini's, and Ol. Borck, 

 for the science of botany, could not raise its reputation to an 

 equality with a later establishment laid out at the palace of 

 Rosenburgh, by P. Vrylling, and by him called the Hortus 

 Christianeus. Among distinguished men, the taste for botany 

 declined in Denmark ; and, from the beginning till nearly the 

 middle of the eighteenth century, the kingdom had not a single 

 botanist : for both the Buchwalts, who taught the science, did 

 not deserve the name. But the great luminary of Sweden shed 

 a light over all the neighbouring states ; the taste for a know- 

 ledge of plants prevailed ; and from this time eminent men, as 

 F. Holm, C. F. Rottboell, and J. Zoega, showed by their useful 



