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Reprinted from Journal of the International Garden Club 

 Vol. I, No. 1, August, 1917 



The Brooklyn Botanic Garden 



By C. Stuart Gager, Director 



EW American cities have botanic gardens. 

 This is in marked contrast to Europe, where 

 nearly every city of any considerable size has 

 a botanic garden, either as a separate institu- 

 tion or as a department of the local univer- 

 sity. In the United States a number of col- 

 leges and universities maintain gardens in connection with their 

 botanical departments. Such, for example, is the case at Har- 

 vard, the University of Pennsylvania, Smith, Mt. Holyoke, 

 Michigan Agricultural College, and the University of Mighigan. 

 With the exception of such gardens, and also excepting the Ar- 

 nold Arboretum at Jamaica Plain, near Boston, and the Letch- 

 worth Park Arboretum along both sides of the Genesee River 

 in New York, both devoted exclusively to trees and shrubs, 

 there are now only three independent botanic gardens in the 

 United States, namely the Missouri Botanical Garden, at St. 

 Louis, the New York Botanical Garden, in Bronx Borough, 

 and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Of the last three, the Brook- 

 lyn garden is the youngest, having been established in 1910. 



Like several other educational institutions in New York City, 

 the Brooklyn Botanic Garden is administered by a private or- 

 ganization (in this case the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sci- 

 ences) cooperating with the city. The city owns the land, has 

 made appropriations of corporate stock for permanent improve- 

 ments of the grounds and to meet part of the cost of the con- 

 struction of buildings, and makes an annual appropriation in 

 the tax budget for maintenance. The articulation with the 

 city government is through the department of parks. The 

 private organization has provided a permanent endowment, 

 the income from which is supplemented by membership dues, 



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