NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 83 



he was induced to offer the whole establishment for sale to the state. Ad almost entire 

 unanimity prevailing among the medical faculty relative to the advantage to be derived 

 from an institution of the kind, as highly necessary to complete a system of medical 

 instruction, and similar sentiments being entertained by many others who felt an interest 

 in the literary reputation of the state, application was made to the legislature that pro- 

 vision might be obtained for the purchase of the Botanic Garden. On this occasion 

 memorials were presented by the state medical society, the medical society of the 

 city and county of New-York, and of the counties of Duchess, Ulster, Niagara, Sara- 

 toga, Clinton, &c. by the corporation of the city, the governors of the New- York Hos- 

 pital, the students attending the medical schools, and from many of the most respectable 

 inhabitants of this city ; and the zeal manifested upon this subject reflects much credit 

 upon the officers and members of these respective associations. The Botanic Garden 

 accordingly became the property of the state of New-York, by an act of their legislature, 

 passed on the 12th of March, 1810. The honourable the regents of the university, imme- 

 diately upon this purchase being effected, allotted that extensive botanical establishment to 

 the use of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, for the laudable purpose contemplated 

 by the legislature. The late proceedings of the legislature, in relation to the Botanic 

 Garden, have been stated elsewhere. It is proper to add that the enterprising and 

 public-spirited founder of this institution, Dr. Hosack, in 1811, published a second 

 edition, enlarged, of the Hortus Elginensis, or a Catalogue of the Plants, indigenous 

 and exotic, cultivated in the Elgin Botanic Garden, arranged in alphabetical order, 

 and embracing the generic and specific names of Linnseus, the synonymes of various 

 authors, the popular appellations by which they are known, the use of the different plants 

 in medicine and the arts, &c. See a Statement of Facts relative to the Establishment 

 and Progress of the Elgin Botanic Garden, and the Subsequent Disposal of the same to 

 the State of Nerv-York; Hortus Elginensis : American Medical and Philosophical Re- 

 gister, vol. 2. from which most of the preceding account has been taken. 



It is ardently hoped that an institution so honourable to the individual by whom it was 

 originally projected, and by whose care and munificence it has been eminently conducive 

 to the promotion of the science of botany, may not be impaired in its character or use- 

 fulness through any want of public support ; and it is respectfully suggested that nothing 

 could more effectually secure the important objects of this institution than some per- 

 manent provision made by the legislature, and the annexation to the establishment of a 

 botanical professorship. 



