ESTABLISHMENT OF A NATIONAL BOTANIC GARDEN. 125 



houses and a large tract of land under cultivation. The herbarium 

 of the department, now deposited with the United States National 

 Museum, is very large and is at present increasing more rapidly than 

 any other in America. There is a somewhat effective working 

 library, which greatly needs material enlargement, and several poorly 

 located and equipped laboratories, in which a A^ast amount of impor- 

 tant investigation is being accomplished under very unfavorable con- 

 ditions, which urgently demand improvements. Publications include 

 Bulletin of the Botanical Division, Bulletin of the Division of For- 

 estry. Bulletin of the Division of Plant Pathology and Physiology, 

 contributions from the United States National Herbarium, Yearbook 

 of the United States Department of Agriculture, and circulars of the 

 several divisions. 



50. New York Botanical Garden. 



[Extract from the New York Botanical Garden and Columbia University, by Prof. N. L.. 

 Britton, reprinted from the Columbia University Quarterly, September, 1916.] 



400 acres in extent: established in 1895. 



The first appropriation of land was 250 acres ; 150 acres were added 

 in 1915. 



Grounds are open to the public at all times, and the buildings are 

 open every day without charge. 



The grounds are situated at the northern part of Bronx Park, 

 extending from Pelham Avenue north to the southern end of the 

 Bronx River Parkway at Williamsburg Bridge. 



The reservation is diversified in topography; the Bronx River runs 

 through it from north to south — a quiet stream through meadows in 

 the northern part south of Williamsburg Bridge, passing into a nar- 

 row wooded valley, forming a cascade below, then plunging in a series 

 of rapids through a picturesque rocky gorge, and passing into quiet, 

 lake-like waters toward the southern end of the tract near Pelham 

 Avenue. West of the Bronx River, coming from north to south, the 

 visitor passes first through river meadows, followed by areas of river 

 woods and a nearby level plain on an ancient gravel terrace, on which 

 the fruiticetum. or collection of shrubs, is established. Passing a 

 chain of three lakes, two of them used as water gardens, he enters the 

 famous Hemlock Forest, 40 acres in extent, west of which the museum 

 building and great greenhouses are situated on undulating land, 

 partly occupied by the plantations of conifers; and southward he 

 finds several valleys separated by rocky ridges, one of these valleys 

 being occupied by the grouped herbaceous plantation. Flower 

 gardens are massed about the greenhouses and along the border 

 screens. 



East of the Bronx River, the deciduous arboretum is established on 

 hilly and undulating ground nearly the whole length of the reserva- 

 tion, surrounding another large range of public greenhouses located 

 near the Bronx Boulevard, which bounds the reservation to the east, 

 south of which are located propagating and experimental green- 

 houses, nurseries, and experimental grounds. Farther south, on the 

 high eastern bank of the Bronx River, is situated the stone mansion 

 built by the Lorillard family in 1856, the propagating greenhouses of 

 the park department, and the new rose garden now under construe- 



