was broken for the museum building on December 31, 1897, and progress 

 was made on this structure, Power House No. I, and the stable during the 

 following year. Ground was broken for the first range of horticultural 

 houses on January 3, 1898. In April, 1898, the construction of the 

 water supply system was commenced, by tapping a 36-inch city water 

 main previously constructed through the grounds, in front of the museum 

 building. The first laying of drain pipe was accomplished in the spring 

 of 1898, by the construction of a porous pipe system in the valley occu- 

 pied by the herbaceous garden. 



The formation of the collections dates from October, 1895, at which 

 time a collection of seeds was purchased for planting. In 1896, Hon. 

 Seth Low, President of Columbia University and Chairman of the 

 Scientific Directors of the Garden, obtained the consent of the Trustees 

 of the University for the use of the greenhouses at the new site of the 

 University at 116th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, for preserving 

 tender plants, and the use of this structure was continued until the green- 

 houses at the Garden were completed. The first tender plant received 

 was a palm given by Miss Louise Veltin. The Trustees of Columbia 

 University also cooperated with the Garden in that year by permitting 

 the Secretary and Director-in-Chief to occupy rooms for offices and 

 collections in the President's house on the old site of Columbia University 

 at Fourth Avenue and 49th Street, and here the first museum and 

 herbarium specimens and books were accumulated. This accumulation 

 went on rapidly during 1897 and 1898, and the specimens and books 

 were stored at both the old and new sites of Columbia University, at the 

 American Museum of Natural History, at the College of Pharmacy, in. 

 the Lorillard Mansion in Bronx Park by permission of the Park Depart- 

 ment, and in the Terminal Storage Warehouse at the foot of 28th Street. 

 In November, 1898, a house on Suburban (now 201st) Street, near 

 Perry Avenue, in Bedford Park, was rented as an office and storehouse, 

 and the use of this structure continued until the completion of the 

 Museum Building, the first use of which for specimens and books was 

 made on August 15, 1899. The Torrey Botanical Club presented its 

 library and herharium; this collection has been made the basis of a 

 local herbarium, since greatly enlarged, illustrating the flora of the 

 vicinity of New York. 



Additions to the collections of books, plants and specimens have since 

 been continuous, by purchases, by gifts from several hundred donors, 

 by exchanges with many other institutions, and through exploration. 



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