ESTABLISHMENT OF A NATIONAL BOTANIC GARDEN. 19 



ever since, to be extremely desirable for park purposes, to be more 

 useful to the community in that way than for building develop- 

 ment. It is pretty rough ground, relatively costly to develop for 

 ordinary city purposes, and peculiarly valuable for park purposes. 



I do not think there is any need for me to attempt to rehearse the 

 details of that situation. It is a very beautiful piece of ground, 

 with diversified soil, on which, in connection with the Anacostia 

 Park, which, as Mr. Moore pointed out, is contiguous with it, it 

 would be possible to accomplish many of the purposes which have 

 been explained to you and at the same time to make it valuable as a 

 place of recreation for the people of the city. 



Mr. Moore. The grading of that would cost the District probably 

 more than to purchase it for park purposes, would it not ? 



Mr. Olmsted. That well might be. I have made no calculations 

 of grading, but it is a very rough piece of ground in part, where 

 that condition would very likely result. 



I made careful calculations of grading cost for Senator Newlands 

 in regard to a piece of somewhat similar land that he had, and 

 those calculations showed that the cost of grading would be such 

 that the land could not be marketed at a price which would carry 

 the investment in grading, and I was compelled to advise Senator 

 Xewlands that the most profitable thing he could clo with that land 

 would be to give it away. He continued to carry it until his death, 

 and I think he lost in carrying charges all that time. 



The Celajrman. Is the character of the soil at this Mount Hamil- 

 ton site proper for the establishment of a botanical garden ? 



Mr. Olmsted. Yes ; it is quite varied. Some of it is not very good, 

 but there are plants which are better grown on soil which is, gen- 

 erally speaking, not very good, and the variety of soil is advan- 

 tageous, and the variety of exposure is decidedly good. 



The Chairman. There is a good deal of stony soil in the hills, is 

 there not? 



Mr. Olmsted. Yes; gravelly. I should like to add just a few 

 words to what has already been said about the functions of and the 

 need for an adequate national botanical garden and aboretum. 



I have been a member for a few years of the American joint com- 

 mittee on horticulture nomenclature. That is a committee created by 

 and representing several organizations concerned with the growing 

 and use of plants, the American Association of Nurserymen; the 

 Ornamental Growers' Association; the American Society of Land- 

 scape Architects, of which I happen to be president just at present; 

 the American Association of Park Superintendents ; and the Ameri- 

 can Pharmaceutical Association, which, from the point of view of 

 the users of drugs, is very much concerned with the matter of plants 

 and plant nomenclature. I have been a member of the working sub- 

 committee of that organization. We published a few years ago a 

 preliminary list attempting to standardize the nomenclature of plants 

 in commercial use in this country. That preliminary list contains 

 the names of about 3,000 plants, but is very incomplete. We expect 

 to get out a new list shortly which will be fully twice as large as 

 that, and that list will not begin to include all of the varieties, dis- 

 tinguishable and distinct entities in the horticultural world and in 

 horticultural commerce. 



