4 

 Board of Estimate and Apportionment authorized the issue 

 of bonds to an amount not exceeding $25,000 for surveys, 

 plans, etc.; but these have not been issued. 



Prior to the organization of the Board of Managers, many 

 of the members of the corporation had given continuous 

 study to the project since its inception. Several of them 

 have made critical studies of botanical gardens in the Old 

 World. 



The Committee on Plans, appointed in June, 1895, studied 

 the subject in all its aspects for a year, with the aid of advice 

 and suggestion from many botanists, landscape gardeners, 

 architects, and others interested, in this country and in 

 Europe, and determined the principal ends desirable to be 

 reached, and the most economic, artistic and practical 

 methods of reaching them, having always in mind the beauti- 

 ful natural features of the grounds and the great value of 

 these to the institution ; their preservation has been deter- 

 mined on from the very first. 



On June 17th, 1896, the preparation of a general plan, to 

 embody the results reached after this long and careful con- 

 sideration, was referred to a commission of experts, consist- 

 ing of N. L. Britton, Director-in-Chief ; R. W. Gibson, 

 Architect ; John R. Brinley, Civil and Landscape Engineer ; 

 Lucien M. Underwood, Professor of Botany, Columbia Uni- 

 versity ; Samuel Henshaw, Landscape Gardener ; Lincoln 

 Pierson, Secretary, Lord & Burnham Co., Greenhouse 

 Architects. All these are men well and favorably known in 

 their professions, and it is maintained that in this commission 

 were included all the elements necessary or desirable for the 

 purposes of the general study, the determination of the de- 

 tailed landscape treatment and special planting being wisely 

 deferred until the general scheme had been approved ; these 

 will be taken up under the best advice obtainable. 



