The Arnold Arboretum — What It Is and Does 



THE question is often asked: What is the 

 Arnold Arboretum and what is it ex- 

 pected to accomplish for the benefit of 

 the world? 

 A department of Harvard University, the 

 Arboretum is a museum of trees and other 

 woody plants and its object is to increase 

 the knowledge of such plants. This museum 

 owes its origin to the imagination of George 

 B. Emerson. In 1868 James Arnold, a mer- 

 chant living in New Bed- 

 ford, Massachusetts, died 

 and at the suggestion of 

 Mr. Emerson left $100,000 

 to trustees, of which Mr. 

 Emerson was one, to be used 

 by them for the advance- 

 ment of agriculture or hor- 

 ticulture. Mr. Emerson had 

 long been interested in trees 

 and had prepared for the 

 Commonwealth an excellent 

 "Report on the Trees and 

 Shrubs Growing Naturally 

 in Massachusetts," which 

 had been publish'ed by the 

 state. Another of Mr. Arn- 

 old's trustees, John James 

 Dixwell, was also interested 

 in trees and had formed on 

 his estate in Jamaica Plain a 

 collection of trees which had 

 in the middle of the last 

 century few equals in Mass- 

 achusetts. Mr. Emerson 

 therefore, was naturallysup- 

 ported by his fellow trustee 

 in his idea of using the 

 Arnold money to establish 

 an Arboretum, and between 

 them they made in 1872 an 

 arrangement with Harvard 

 University by which they 

 turned over to it the Arnold 

 bequest, the University in 

 return agreeing to devote to 

 the Arboretum a part of the 

 farm in West Roxburywhich 

 had been left to it by Ben- 

 jamin Bussey to be used for 

 a Farm School. This agree- 

 ment provided that the Uni- 

 versity should grow on this 

 land every tree and shrub 

 able to endure the climate 

 of Massachusetts. One 

 hundred and twenty -five 

 acres of the Bussey Farm 

 was at first included in this 

 arrangement and several 

 years later the University 

 added seventy -five acres 

 more to the Arboretum, the 

 area of which was further 

 increased, as will be explained, by the City 

 of Boston. 



It is safe to say that none of the men di- 

 rectly engaged in making this agreement had 

 any idea what an Arboretum might be, or 

 what it was going to cost in time and money 

 to carry out the agreement to cultivate all the 

 trees and shrubs which could be grown in 

 Massachusetts, and certainly none of them 

 were more ignorant on these subjects than the 

 person selected to see that this agreement 

 was carried out. He found himself pro- 



By C. S. SARGENT, the F irst iw«« 



Illustrated by photographs made in the Arboretum 



vided with a worn-out farm partly covered 

 with native woods nearly ruined by pastur- 

 age and neglect, with only a small part of the 

 income of the $100, oco available, for it had 

 been decided by the University that the 

 whole income could not be used until the 

 principal had been increased to $150,000 

 by accumulated interest. He was without 

 the support and encouragement of the gen- 

 eral public which knew nothing and cared 



Climbing Hydrangea (Hydrangea petiolaris) introduced by the Arboretum is the only hardy woody vine 

 with conspicuous flowers which can cling firmly to a brick wall. On the Administration Building 



less about an Arboretum and what it was ex- 

 pected to accomplish. 



Fortunately the late Frederick Law Olm- 

 sted became interested in the project and sug- 

 gested that the City of Boston might well in- 

 clude under certain conditions the Arboretum 

 in its park system. This plan met with 

 little favor and was strongly opposed by the 

 University and the Park Commission of the 

 City, and it took five years of exceedingly 

 disagreeable semipohtical work to bring it 

 about. In 1 882, however, the consent of the 



122 



Legislature having been obtained to such 

 an arrangement, a contract was made be- 

 tween the University and the City which 

 permitted the Park Commission of Boston to 

 seize by right of eminent domain the land 

 devoted to the Arboretum and then to lease 

 back to the University for one thousand years 

 all this land, with the exception of that to be 

 occupied by a system of drives and walks which 

 were to be built by the City after plans to be 

 prepared by Mr. Olmsted 

 and which were to be main- 

 tained by the City during 

 the period of the contract. 

 1 he City further agreed to 

 add to the Arboretum land 

 necessary for carrying out 

 Mr. Olmsted's plan for the 

 roads, to protect the Arbor- 

 etum by its police and to 

 assume any taxes which 

 might be levied on it during 

 the period of the contract. 

 On its part the University 

 agreed that the Arboretum 

 should be open to the public 

 every day during the con- 

 tinuance of the contract 

 from sunrise to sunset. The 

 City was slow in building 

 the roads, and it was not 

 until 1885, that the planting 

 of trees in their systematic 

 arrangement was begun. 



Among the things which 

 have made the Arboretum 

 what it is the most import- 

 ant is this contract with the 

 City of Boston which assures 

 its permanency in its present 

 position and frees it from 

 the danger of taxation. 

 Next in importance was the 

 invitation which I received 

 in 1879 from the Govern- 

 ment of the United States 

 to prepare in connection 

 with the taking of the Tenth 

 Census a Report on the 

 Forest Wealth and the 

 Forest Trees of the United 

 States. In preparing this 

 Report I was able to visit 

 all parts of the country and 

 to employ as assistants the 

 men who at that time were 

 best acquainted with North 

 American trees. Many of 

 these men became actively 

 interested in the Arbore- 

 tum, and the collections 

 which they made as a basis 

 for the Census Report laid 

 the foundation of the Her- 

 barium and made it possible to add to its 

 collection of living plants many rare North 

 American trees and shrubs. This Govern- 

 ment work gave to the Arboretum a certain 

 national standing and recognition which has 

 been useful to it. It led to the formation 

 and arrangement by the Arboretum of the 

 great collection of North American woods in 

 the American Museum of Natural History in 

 New York, and it made it possible to prepare 

 here "The Silva of North America" and other 

 publications on American trees. 



