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HISTORY OF THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN 



X. L. BRITTON 



Road September 6, 1915, on the ocvasi >n "I the Twentieth Anniversary Celebration. 



The need of a botanical garden in the City of New York was con- 

 sidered by the Torrey Botanical Club at its meeting of October 24, 1888, 

 at which time Mrs. N. L. Britton described to the Club the Royal 

 Gardens at Kew, England, following a visit made during that year for 

 the purpose of studying the large collections made by Dr. H. H. Rusby 

 in Bolivia in 1885, 1886, and at the next meeting of the Club, the following 

 committee was appointed to further consider the subject: E. E. Sterns, 

 Chairman, Arthur Hollick, Secretary, Thomas Hogg, H. H. Rusby, 

 T. F. Allen, N. L. Britton, J. S. Newberry, Addison Brown. At a 

 meeting of the Club held January 8, 1889, an appeal for a public botanical 

 garden, presented by the committee, was adopted and ordered printed 

 for general circulation. This committee obtained the consent of the 

 Department of Public Parks to the establishment of a botanical garden, 

 with adequate space in one of the city parks, if any individual or organiza- 

 tion should provide sufficient means for the establishment of such a 

 garden, and the committee subsequently sought subscriptions for this 

 purpose. The project received wide commendation by the press and by 

 influential citizens. 



The committee was reorganized, owing to the illness of the Chairman, 

 a few months later, by the election of Mr. Thomas Hogg as Chairman 

 and the addition of Mrs. Charles P. Daly, Mrs. Lena Potter Cowdin 

 and Mrs. Louis Fitzgerald, and at a meeting of persons interested, held 

 at the residence of Mrs. Daly, 84 Clinton Place, which was addressed 

 by her husband, Judge Charles P. Daly, and by members of the Com- 

 mittee, it was resolved to ask the necessary permission from the Legis- 

 lature of the State of New York to enable the Department of Parks 

 to appropriate land for a site in Bronx Park for the proposed garden. 

 None of the parks in the present Borough of The Bronx had at that time 

 been developed to any considerable extent and there was some dis- 

 cussion as regards the most favorable and desirable site, but the 

 northern end of Bronx Park was agreed upon as the best. 



An Act to provide for the establishment of such a garden, drawn by 

 Judge Charles P. Daly and Judge Addison Brown, was introduced in the 



