which means that the flora of the country includes 

 the most diversified types and that the Botanic 

 Garden must propagate them all in order to cater, 

 to the different climates of the widely separated 

 states. 43 



This, the Star pointed out, was "necessary if the con- 

 gressmen [were] to be truly benefited by a plant distribu- 

 tion. . . . Obviously it would be [a] ridiculous and imprac- 

 tical procedure if plants were sent out promiscuously/ 7 To 

 avoid such mistakes, Superintendent George Hess was "con- 

 fronted with a responsibility that [implied] a special under- 

 standing of gardening and a national viewpoint on the 

 situation." 44 



Each spring, during the Hess years, hundreds of plants 

 were set out along the walk leading from the Garden's Third 

 Street entrance to the Grant Memorial on the axis of the 

 Washington Monument and the Capitol. Numerous other 

 tropical plants were moved from the conservatories onto the 

 grounds. 



Tourists entering the north gate of the Garden were "con- 

 fronted by two monster crotons as sentinels, startling in the 

 brightness of their variegated foliage." On the northwest lawn 

 was "a huge bed of exotics, such as alligator pears, guavas, 

 sapadilla and paw paws." A plot of towering banana trees 

 was found on the northeast lawn. "The most conspicuous 

 adornment of the southwest lawn of the garden [was] a mon- 

 ster bed of various grasses, with the giant bamboo in the 

 center surrounded by vari-colored and spiked and 

 tufted grasses." Other interesting grasses included the "Bul- 

 rush of the Nile [Cypenis papyrus], in which Moses is record- 

 ed to have been hidden; the Andropogen [Cymbopogon 

 nardus], from which is made citronella, used to drive away 

 mosquitoes, and the attractive zebra grasses [Miscanthus 

 sinensis 'Zebrinus'}'.' Along the "walk leading to the south 

 gate [were] two glorious beds of scarlet and pink geraniums, 

 which many floriculture experts [had] declared to have the 

 most beautiful blooms in Washington." 45 



43 Annual Distribution of Plants From the Botanic Garden, Washing- 

 ton Evening Star, January 30, 1916, p. 3, pt. 4. A list of the plants dis- 

 tributed to Congress in 1930 is found in Appendix 9. 



« Ibid. 



45 G.W. Hess Returns From Southland, Washington Evening Star, 

 August 19, 1915, p. 10. A description of what the Garden was like in the 

 early 1920s is found in R.W. Shufeldt, Trees and Flowers in the United 

 States Botanic Garden, American Forestry; v 28, April 1922, pp. 226-231. 



45 



