12 ESTABLISHMENT OF A NATIONAL BOTANIC GARDEN. 



Dr. Britton. I should think you ought to have at the minimum 

 four or five hundred acres. You ought to have that to develop an 

 institution which would meet the necessities. 



Senator Knox. What is the acreage of the New York garden ? 



Dr. Britton. We have about 394 acres. 



Senator Knox. What is the largest one in the United States ? 



Dr. Britton. Ours. 



The Chairman. Is the Bronx Park a botanical garden ? 



Dr. Britton. Yes ; the north half of the Bronx Park. 



Mr. Pell. The Lorillard property? 



Dr. Britton. Yes: it was part of the Lorillard property when it 

 was condemned for park purposes. 



The Chairman. Can you give us an idea of what the capitals of 

 other large countries of the world have done in relation to botanical 

 gardens — London, Paris, Berlin, and cities like that ? 



Dr. Britton. Of course, the most famous institution of its kind in 

 the world, and probably the most beautiful, is one which lies on the 

 outskirts of London. That is the Botanical Garden of Kew. They 

 have a total acreage of something like 300 hundred acres, and it has 

 always been regarded as insufficient for their best development. That 

 is an institution which dates back over more than a hundred years, 

 and has been of untold value to the development of the British Em- 

 pire and its colonies — something which they all look to. The old 

 Jardin des Plantes, at Paris, though smaller, has been a center of 

 scientific information since the time of Tournefort. about 1700. Then 

 there was the great botanical garden up at Petrograd, where there 

 were more kinds of plants in cultivation prior to the war than there 

 were at Kew, strangely enough, away up there in Russia. That has 

 been of enormous value to the agriculture and horticulture of the 

 Russian Empire. There are others, of course, all through Europe. 

 Those three may be cited at this time. I think, as the three most 

 important. 



The Chairman. Has Australia a large garden, or have any of the 

 South American countries large gardens? 



Dr. Britton. They all have gardens of one kind or another, very 

 unequally developed. The Brazilians have an enormous tract of land 

 right outside of Rio de Janeiro — 3.000 acres. They have there a most 

 important collection of trees of South America, etc. It is very valu- 

 able information which they send out. We need to have first-hand 

 information, as these complicated questions concerning trees, and 

 plants, and their application to man. are coming up frequently. The 

 scientific repositories of knowledge are becoming of greater and 

 greater importance every year. We have not enough of them. None 

 of them are sufficiently developed to meet the needs of any nation, as 

 I take it. Of course, they are coming to be more and more, but it 

 seems to me you have an opportunity here to utilize the great 

 resources of the United States. 



Senator Knox. What is the nature of the demands made upon the 

 New York garden '. 



Dr. Britton. They are of all kinds. There are questions all the 

 way through, from the application of the most minute vegetables to 

 health and hygiene, right through up to the most beautiful orchid, 

 or the most beautiful dahlia, or the most beautiful lily that grows, 



