ESTABLISHMENT OF A NATIONAL BOTANIC GAKDEN. 65 



if Congress did not act to preserve it, a value which, if faithfully 

 preserved, would give incalculable enjoyment and healthful recre- 

 ation to the people of the District in future generations. This 

 special value was and is dependent on the peculiar beauty of the 

 natural scenery of Rock Creek Valley. 



This is not the place to attempt any analysis of that beauty, but 

 clearly it has its own distinctive qualities ; very precious, very easily 

 destroyed. It was primarily those qualities which justified the 

 acquirement of the park, and nothing ought to be permitted within 

 its borders that will tend to subordinate or sacrifice them. 



The character of the native vegetation is one of the important 

 factors in making this scenery what it is. In places the woods had 

 been cleared before the park was acquired, the location of these 

 clearings being wholly accidental as far as concerns their effect on 

 the landscape. Some of these openings, left as simple green fields, 

 :ire an advantage to the scenery. Others might better be restored 

 in time to a woodland condition, but that woodland should be abso- 

 lutely harmonious with the native forest. 



If the attempt shall be made to create an arboretum here, even 

 without the glittering glass houses and formal beds of a complete 

 botanic garden, conflicts of purposes are certain to arise which will 

 defeat in a measure the original purpose of Rock Creek Park. It 

 is essential in any arboretum or botanical park worthy of the name 

 to introduce many plants which not only are not native of the 

 locality but which produce effects radically different from those 

 which make the Rock Creek scenery what it is. 



The danger is strikingly illustrated for anyone who has an appre- 

 ciation of the qualities of natural landscape by the planting which 

 has actually been done on certain open lands in Rock Creek Park, 

 with the purpose of creating an arboretum. This planting, it is 

 understood, was done by the Forestry Service, under permission from 

 the Board of Control of Rock Creek Park. It can be seen near Camp 

 Good Will. It does not now and it never will look like a part of the 

 natural scenery. It is distinctly out of harmony with it. The sort of 

 thing that has here been done on an open field is liable to be done 

 almost anywhere in the park if the purpose of creating a varied 

 botanical collection is placed side by side with that of preserving the 

 natural scenery as one of the prime objects of the park. 



A national botanic garden, arboretum or botanical park worthy of 

 the United States Government can never be created unless those in 

 charge are enthusiastically devoted to its special purposes and ready 

 to serve those purposes at the expense of the peculiarities of the local, 

 natural scenery whenever the two purposes unavoidably conflict. 

 If the botanic garden is established in Rock Creek Park, the inevit- 

 able result will be the gradual frittering away of a priceless and self- 

 consistent piece of natural scenery. 



It is not necessary to express an opinion as to whether the purposes 

 of a national botanic garden are more or less important than those 

 for which Rock Creek was acquired. The point is that both purposes 

 can not dominate the management of one piece of ground without 

 conflict, and this piece of ground was set apart by Congress for the 

 preservation of its natural scenery. If the original intention of 



