A historical sketch of the development of botany in New York City

oni shOrniCAk Stele OF THE DEVELOPMENT
Oe BOW AN 4 UN INE W.-Y ORK -CIT Y.*

By HEnry H. Ruspy:

It is my purpose this afternoon to direct your attention to the
influences whose workings have brought into existence the pres-
ent highly satisfactory organization of botanical work in this city.
Among many minor elements, three stand out prominently, and
call for our special attention. They are: (1) local botanical
gardens, including the present one, and the persons who have
been associated in their management; (2) the botanical depart-
ment of Columbia College ; (3) the Torrey Botanical Club.

Were we to commence citi the very earliest botanical history
of our city, we should be carried back to a time when, as an im-
portant seaport in a new world, it was made the temporary head-
quarters of visiting botanists, who accumulated here their collec-
tions, maintaining some of them in a living condition, until the
arrival of a convenient opportunity for dispatching them to the
mother countries. Such occurrences as these, exerting little in-
fluence in the permanent development of a botanical center here,
occupy no place in to-day’s consideration. Developmental work
of the kind that concerns us was active, previous to the close of
the 18th century, at some points farther south, especially at Phila-
delphia, and in New England, but not at New York.

The first important event here was the work of Doctor, after-
ward Governor, Cadwallader Colden and his daughter Jane, who,
near the middle of the 18th century, conducted their studies with
the aid of a small botanical garden at their home, near Newburgh.

* An address delivered before the Torrey Botanical Club at a special meeting held

on May 23, 1906, in commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the commencement
of work in the development of the New York Botanical Garden.

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NEW YOR
BOTANIC
GARDEN

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Perhaps the most important part of this work consisted of the
correspondence carried on with native and foreign botanists re-
garding their local flora, and the transmission of specimens. Miss
Colden first made known our pretty little Copts, or gold-thread.

A much more important event was the arrival here, in 1785,
of the elder Michaux, who established a celebrated botanical gar-
den at New Durham, N. J., the site of which is now occupied
by the Hoboken cemetery. <A brief account of this garden may
be found in the Bulletin of our Club, 11: 88. 1884. In that
year I saw growing there a barberry bush which apparently rep-
resented the last trace of Michaux’s plantings, except that the
European medicinal shrub Rhamnus Frangula, which he appears
to have introduced, has established itself in the adjacent lowlands,
and at some neighboring points. Michaux’s garden was estab-
lished especially for the temporary cultivation of plants designed
to be sent to France, or to yield seeds designed for such ship-
ment." Nevertheless, so zealous an investigator as Michaux could
not fail to utilize this agency for purposes of study, and his great
work, Flora Boreali-Americana, published in 1803, and other
works on North American botany, were thus materially enriched.
Michaux’s work in this country was continued by his son, one of
whose important publications was a //stoire des arbres forestiers
de l’ Amérique Septentrionale, afterwards translated into English
as The North American Sylva, and this also profited largely by
the observations made by the father, while maintaining his garden.

During the time when the -Michauxs were so active here, Mr.
Samuel L. Mitchill was assiduously collecting plants in the vicinity
of his home at Plandome, Long Island, a catalogue of which was
published in 1807. His work is of special interest to us, since
he was the first professor of botany in Columbia College.

The flora of Manhattan Island was at this time being very
actively studied by Major John Le Conte, who in 1811 published
an important catalogue relating thereto.

It is a well recognized historical fact that up to this time, and
indeed for a long period following, botanical work proper in this
country, consisted chiefly of the collecting and naming of plants,
and the description of new species.

ou)

Writing of the period about 1814, made memorable by the pub-
lication of Pursh’s Flora Americae Septentrionalis and Bigelow’s
Florula Bostoniensis, Darlington says ‘‘ Botanical works now be-
gan to multiply, in the United States — and the students of ‘the
amiable science’ found helps in their delightful pursuit, which
rendered it vastly more easy and satisfactory than it had been to
their predecessors.”

The next botanical undertaking in this city was of the greatest
importance in connection with our study, and calls for our par-
ticular attention. The successor of Dr. Mitchill as professor of
botany and materia medica in Coiumbia College was Dr. David
Hosack, a man of equal breadth and of great strength and energy.
His interest in botany was chiefly medical. Most of the amateur
botanists of that day were practising physicians, and many, if not
most of the professionals had received a medical education and
training, so that Dr. Hosack’s attitude toward the science was
not at the time peculiar. This fact reminds us that outside of
the investigation of general and local floras, in their relations to
geographical and taxonomic botany, interest then centered chiefly
in the medicinal properties and uses of plants. A comparison
between this branch of study as then understood and as now con-
ducted can be briefly placed before you by stating that most of
the plants then regarded as the important medicinal agents have
been dismissed by modern medicine, except where it is tram-
melled by medical sectarianism. The explanation of their error
is not that their results were reached empirically, for this is an
excellent method, but that their empirical processes were full of
natural sources of error, depending on impressions produced upon
unqualified observers, among both patients and practitioners.
The chemistry of plants was then practically unknown, whereas
it is now the basis of medical botany. Since chemistry consti-
tutes at the same time the visible basis of physiology, and phys-
iology brings us as close as it is possible for us to get to the life
of the plant, it follows that medical botany, while not entitled to
the objective position that it held in the days of Hosack, is con-
cerned with the same phenomena which engage the attention of
the very highest workers in botanical science at the present day.

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The great difference between the latter and the work as pursued
by Hosack lies in our knowledge of the nature of the life proc-
‘esses and therefore of the proper and effective methods of studying
them. Even in the state of ignorance which then existed, it was
clear to such keen reasoners as Hosack that the reaching of
sound botanical conclusions required that the living plant be kept
under observation, and he became possessed of the strongest de-
termination to establish a botanical garden adequate to the needs
of local botanists and teachers of botany. After long efforts to
secure sufficient cooperation, he at length decided to enter inde-
pendently upon the enterprise, and in 1801 he purchased 20 acres
of land at Elgin, now bounded by 46th and 5oth Sts., and 5th
and Madison Avenues (or probably of somewhat greater extent)
and established the famous Elgin Botanical Garden, better known
perhaps as the Hosack Botanical Garden. Besides his hardy
plants, many were grown in a large conservatory. The site of
this garden was described in 1811 as ‘about three and one-half
miles from this city, on the middle road between Bloomingdale
and Kingsbridge.” This garden has of late years become so
well known through various writings, that I shall not take up its
general history. Hosack announced its primary object of atten-
tion as being the collection and cultivation of the native plants of
this country, especially such as possessed medicinal value or
were otherwise useful. He gratefully acknowledges assistance
received in starting his Garden from Professor Mitchill, his prede-
cessor, from the Hon. Robert R. Livingston and from John
Stevens, Esq., of Hoboken. He soon learned what has recently
become apparent to many persons here present, that the suc-
cessful conduct of a botanical garden is a work of enormous
labor and serious responsibility, and that one man, otherwise
engaged, cannot accomplish it. With the garden already in
actual successful operation, it was not so difficult to enlist state
interest, and the legislature was induced to purchase it in 1810,
and to provide the necessary funds by means of a lottery. Ho-
sack subsequently enjoyed the classical distinction of all success-
ful promotors of great enterprises, in being assailed by the high-
class scum of citizenship. By subsequent legislative action the

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property was turned over to Columbia College, and its use di-
verted from that of a botanical garden to that of highly profit-
able rentals. ‘

We cannot understand the botany of Hosack’s time without a
brief glance at some of his contemporaries and immediate suc-
cessors, especially those who exerted local influence. The list
includes the names of some of the most honored of American
botanists. Biographical sketches of all are to be found in our
Bulletin file, so that I need not repeat the purely historical data,
but may speak of the character of these men and of their work,
in its relation to our subject. Foremost of them all was John
Torrey, whose name is commemorated, I hope permanently, in
that of our society. Following Dr. Hosack, he was the third of
the five men who, up to the present, have occupied the chair of
botany in Columbia College. His characteristics may be expressed
in the terms, strong personal character, broad scholarship and
great intellectual ability. Although best known to us as a
botanist, yet thirty years of his life were those of a great teacher
and worker in chemistry at the U. S. Military Academy at West
Point, in the College of Physicians and Surgeons of this city, in
Princeton College, and as U. S. Assayer in the New York office.
Had the necessary facilities then existed in this country, it seems
likely that this man, combining such a great knowledge of botany
and chemistry, might here have developed important researches
in the chemistry of plants. Asa matter of fact, his knowledge
of botany was acquired chiefly as a recreation in the hours of
leisure afforded by his other professional work. Yet Underwood
truly writes, ‘When the annals of American botany are finally
written, no name will have a more conspicuous position than that
of John Torrey.”’

Almost before reaching manhood Torrey was one of the found-
ers of the New York Lyceum of Natural History, and was the
leader in publishing, through it, a catalogue of plants growing
within thirty miles of the city. Five years later he published the
first part of his /lora of the Northern and Middle Sections of the
United States, and later his Compendium on the same subject, im-
portant forerunners, in more than one way, of Gray’s Manual.

6

These accomplishments proved him the great master that he was,
and soon his hands were crowded with important work, especially
connected with the active explorations of our western territory
then in progress. In this work he was a close associate of Asa
Gray, and probably their most important work was tne first parts
of their /lora of North America, published from 1838 to 1843.
Many men whose work has thus branched out from local into
general lines have allowed the latter to supplant and replace the
former, but this was not true of Torrey, who combined in rare de-
gree generic and specific powers. Not only were his interest and
activity in local work undiminished, but they grew apace, and
his patient and quiet enthusiasm gathered about him a group of
associates who not only were devoted to him personally, but
imitated and emulated his work. In this saying is stated the
immediate origin of the Torrey Botanical Club. At various
points in the history of our Club, we have been reminded that
‘‘a nation has arisen that knew not Joseph,’ and various pro-
posals have been made for changing the name of the society.
Let us record now the opinion that the selection of Torrey’s
name for this purpose was so just, natural and appropriate that
its retention amounts to a historical necessity.

Except for the published works of Torrey, most of those of
this early period which here concern us were of a somewhat gen-
eral nature, but naturally including our local interests. Of these
may be mentioned the following: In 1813, Muhlenberg’s Cata-
logue of North American Plants, and in 1817 his work on North
American grasses and sedges; in 1818, Nuttall’s most scholarly
work on the genera of North American plants; in 1820, Gray’s
Genera, in 1822, Schweinitz’s Monograph of the Genus Viola ;
in 1833, Beck’s Botany of the Northern and Middle States ; in
1834, Schweinitz’s work on North American Fungi, and in the
same year, Gray’s Monograph of the North American Spectes of
Rhynchospora. In the meantime, very important works of a
similar character were being produced in the South, and to a
lesser extent, in the West.

These publications, it will be observed, were chiefly of interest
to those actively engaged in original work, and not to young

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students. In 1803 there appeared about the first work designed
especially for the latter class, an elementary work on botany by
Barton. Writing of 1824, Darlington says: ‘‘ About this time
some of the schools in the Northern States began to make a
profession of teaching botany, and a demand for suitable books
for this purpose arose. Accordingly, a number, such as they
were, soon appeared. Among the most successful was a Wanual,
compiled by Professor Amos Eaton, of Troy, New York.” Of
the character of the educational works of the period, little need be
said, since it is sufficiently indicated in that of the work in which
botanists were then engaged. This sort of botanical teaching
entered upon its most active stage with the appearance of Gray’s
_ Elements of Botany, in 1836, a work that is still being sold upon
an extensive scale, and this, in your speaker’s opinion, very greatly
to the advantage of botany, in spite of the many books of different
character, the use of which we so greatly enjoy. The publica-
tion, for the use of students, of text-books on structural botany,
and later on morphology, in connection with manuals on local
floras, became very popular, and of incalculable value in interest-
ing people in the study of plants.

We must now pass from this general consideration of local
botanical development up to the middle of the last century, and
follow some special influences proceeding from the growth of the
botanical department of Columbia College. During the period
when Dr. Torrey was at its head, that department was very actively
engaged in educational work, though this was of the peculiarly
restricted sort characteristic of the times. About the time of his
death in 1873, his herbarium and library, which he had previously
maintained in his home, came into the possession of Columbia,
together with the herbaria of Crooke, Chapman and Meissner. To
these, collections from various parts of the world, and especially
from those parts of the United States then being explored, were
rapidly added, and a very large and important herbarium soon
grew up; but no professor of botany was appointed to succeed
Dr. Torrey, and the herbarium was neglected by the curator in
charge. A very large part of it was not classified, nor even
named, and lay in the form of a small mountain of dusty bundles

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which were not, and could not be consulted. Botanical instruc-
tion was most meager, and was merely a part of the general
course in biology. There was not, in fact, a department of
botany, the subject being treated as a subordinate of geology, under
Professor John S. Newberry. From 1875 to 1879, Dr. Britton
was a student at the School of Mines, and was strongly attracted,
by natural taste and ability, toward the botanical side of his work.
When upon his graduation he was appointed assistant to Dr. New-
berry, he appreciated clearly the great value of the materials fora
botanical department, to be organized on a new and modern basis,
which were in the possession of the College, and he began a
careful and systematic examination of them. In speaking of this
exceedingly important event in the general, as well as in the
botanical, history of New York, your speaker takes the keenest
delight, as he was for most of the time one of the closest associ-
ates of Dr. Britton, and can speak of that which he not only saw,
but which he watched with appreciative interest.

A special stimulus to Dr. Britton at this time was his inter-
est in his first great botanical undertaking, the preparation of
an elaborate catalogue of the plants of New Jersey, this also,
being performed subordinately to a department of geology. In
this undertaking, an intimate association with the members of
our Club and an active participation in its work were prime
essentials to success, an illustration of the way in which existing
forces worked together in carrying forward our natural botanical
development. Another potent influence of a similar nature
should be here recorded. At this time considerable botanical
material from distant parts of this country and from other
hitherto unexplored regions was coming to this city for original
study, and this made it imperative that Columbia’s botanical
house should be set in order in the interest of comparative
work. With the knowledge and encouragement of Dr. New-
berry, but with comparatively little on the part of others con-
cerned in the management of the college, Dr. Britton carried on
this work in the interim of his official duties, until at length a
great working herbarium existed where before there was chaos.
At the same time the botanical instruction was being extended

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and, of greater importance, was being modernized. When the
Doctor was at length prepared to make the situation known to
Columbia, it was not to submit plans for the organization of a
botanical department, but to present to it one already made, and
requiring only to be officially recognized and formally named.
The performance of these ceremonies, with suitable provision for
maintenance, guaranteed the position of New York as one of the
first botanical centers of the country, and later of the world, with Dr.
Britton as Columbia’s fourth professorin this department. Thus we
see that at every important stage in its development, the botanical
department of Columbia has owed its prosperity not to the institu-
tion as such, but to some earnest worker, ready to make the sacri-
fice of love. Hosack individually made the botanical garden that
afterward enriched the institution; Torrey accumulated the her-
barium that became the corner-stone of the later structure ; Brit-
ton silently-—-one may almost say surreptitiously — brought
about changes which have finally placed it in the vanguard of
the world’s botanical forces.

The intercourse and personal and professional associations de-
pendent upon the increasing number of persons in and about New
York who became interested in botanical work in Torrey’s
time led most naturally and inevitably to a botanical society, at
first incidental and unorganized, later a formal organization.

As. is true of so many institutions which grow healthily and
attain to great and permanent success, the exact date of the
origin of our Club can hardly be fixed. Those of you who take
even the slightest general interest in this subject should not fail
to read * the inaugural address of Dr. George Thurber, delivered
at the Astor House in 1873, on the occasion of his first election
as our first president. He confesses his entire inability to fix on
the time when Torrey and his friends virtually established the
society. He says that for a long time after the election of the
first set of officers the members found it impossible to break from
the habit of informal, free-and-easy, conversational meetings
which had grown up and which, I must remark, have always been
found the most effective in the Club’s work, whenever they have
recurred.

* Bull. Torrey Club, 4: 26-39. 1873.

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The Club’s formal organization was undertaken in 1867, and
its incorporation occurred four years later, under the name New
York Botanical Club, changed the following year to that which
it now bears. Within three years after its establishment the Club
began issuing a monthly publication, the Awd/etin, since uninter-
ruptedly maintained. Its prefatory note declared its primary
object to be “to form a medium of communication for all those
interested in the Flora of this vicinity, and thus to bring together
and fan into a flame the sparks of botanical enthusiasm, at present
too much isolated. . . . We have chiefly in view the develop-
ment of a greater botanical interest in our neighborhood, and
found our hopes of success as much upon learners as upon the
learned.”’ May I pause here to ask all those present to regard
this sentiment as that which actuates our Club to-day. There
have been unfortunate periods in our history when this funda-
mental principle has been lost sight of ; when learned newcomers,
unfamiliar with our history and character, have assumed that we
existed for the learned only. Believe me that this spirit does not
exist to-day. We are most desirous that the knowledge should
go abroad that the Torrey Botanical Club exists and is maintained
for the most humble learners, equally with the learned, and our
invitation to membership is to-day most cordially extended to
everyone who desires either to assist in strengthening our influ-
ence, or to be assisted by us.

In the further unfolding of its objects, the Awd/etin uncon-
sciously states the object of the Club’s organization: ‘ An atten-
tive study of plants in their native haunts is essential to the
advance of the science, and in this respect the local observer has
an advantage over the explorer of extensive regions, or the pos-
sessor of a general herbarium. He can note the plant from its
cradle to its grave; can watch its struggles for existence, its
habits, its migrations, its variations; can study its atmospheric
and entomological economies ; can speculate on its relations to
the past, or experiment on its utility to man.’”’ Ecology is thus
clearly seen to be the object of study, notwithstanding that the
name of it was not generally discovered by our botanical fraternity
until about 1890, nor the active and merciless chase of the poor

ite

thing by American botanists well under way until about five years
later. ‘

From this time up to the establishment of the New York
Botanical Garden the history of our Club is practically that of
botany in this city, for very little was done that was not directly
or indirectly connected with us or, one might say, actually cen-
tered about us. This fact is of the utmost importance in our
study, since upon it depends the essential character of most of
what has since occurred.

The Club’s history is so voluminous that it requires separate
and extended treatment, and I can here do little but refer to its
influence. Its first officers were George Thurber, president ;
ciimothye we. yAllen; vice-president ; J." J: Crooke, treasurer ;
James Hogg, corresponding secretary ; P. V. LeRoy, ‘recording
secretary ; William H. Leggett, editor; P. V. LeRoy, curator.

Some of the more influential of the early members call for
attention at this point.

Dr. Thurber, our first president, was characterized by profound
conscientiousness and great determination. He began life as a
pharmacist, in Providence, and developed a strong leaning toward
chemistry, of which subject he became ateacher. His love of
botany grew out of his study of drugs. In 1850 he went as
botanist, quartermaster and commissary to the Mexican Boundary
Commission, the botanical results of which were published by
Torrey in 1859. He received the degree of A.M. from Brown
University, and the honorary degree of M.D. from the Univer-
sity Medical College, of this city. He was in the U.S, Assay
Office for two years and left from motives of honor. He was at
various times a teacher in Cooper Union, the New York College
of Pharmacy and Michigan Agricultural College, and was presi-
dent of several horticultural societies and of this Club until
1880. For twenty-two years he was editor of the American
Agriculturist, in which capacity he exerted an influence over the
character of young people, in the agricultural sections of the
country, that was and is of great national importance. His most
important contribution to botanical work was perhaps the main-
tenance of a botanical garden at Passaic, New Jersey, in close

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relations with that of Harvard. His private fortunes were melan-
choly. Captured by the whirl of speculation in real estate that
followed the civil war, he purchased land at an excessive price, and
spent the rest of his life in a painful struggle honorably to dis-
charge his financial obligations.

Mr. Wm. H. Leggett, our editor until near the time of his
death in 1882, was a distinguished and successful educator,
maintaining a private school in the upper part of the city. He
was described as a ‘profound classical scholar,’ making a
specialty of Greek. Notwithstanding this predilection, he man-
aged to perform his botanical work in a most creditable manner,
and exerted a persuasive influence in interesting the young in this
study. It must not be overlooked that in founding our badletin
he assumed the financial responsibility for its success.

Professor Alphonso Wood will be ever remembered by Amer-
ican botanists as the author of descriptive floras of the highest
scholarly character, and put together with a rare regard for edu-
cational principles. Those who are fortunate enough to have
owned and carefully used his books will recognize, in the light of
our present advancement, that his knowledge of plants was more
full and accurate than that of most of our American botanists
who have written similar works. His life was not a happy one.
The influences of prestige and station were deliberately turned
against him, and he was to a great extent suppressed. The
manuscript of his Class-book was used by him in teaching, and
steadily perfected, for ten years before its publication, which was
very successful. His work in life was that of an educator. He
taughtin and presided over a number of institutions, and brought
educational and financial success wherever he went. In 1865 he
made an overland botanical journey to California, then to Puget
Sound, and home by way of the Isthmus. The specimens and
observations accumulated on this journey were very valuable,
but have never been systematically studied. He was professor
in the New York College of Pharmacy during the two years pre-
ceding his death, in 1881.

Mr. Coe» Fis-Austin was born at Closter, IN ine wesie
and died in 1880. His chief characteristics were a marvelous

energy and capacity for work, and great independence and orig-
inality in selecting his lines. His energy was closely confined, so
far as general botany was concerned, to the local flora, and no
other man has done so much to make known the flora of northern
New Jersey. He was at the time one of the very few local
workers in bryology and practically our only close student of
the Hepaticae. Unfortunately, his botanical zeal caused his
family to be deprived of many of the important possessions of
this life.

Mr. M. Ruger, who died in 1879 at the untimely age of 44,
was in many respects a memorable character. His physical con-
stitution was so weak that he could never attend school, nor en-
gage in any vocation, yet he succeeded in acquiring a very liberal
education, and in pursuing the avocation of botany until he came
to be known as the Club’s “walking encyclopedia.” His knowl-
edge of the local flora was remarkably full and remarkably ac-
curate, and before he died this knowledge was extended over a
large part of the country. Not only did his observations enrich
the proceedings of the Club and the pages of the Bulletin, but
his collections did much to build up the Club’s herbarium. His
work was notable for extending into such fields as that of my-
cology, then almost unworked, and for many years all questions
arising in the Club relating to fungi were habitually referred to
him. He was stricken down while botanizing and died two days
later.

Professor Joseph Schrenck was a school principal in Hoboken,
who applied his scholarly tastes and abilities to the study of
botany in ways then little known among us, and he labored dil-
ivently and with great patience to lead others in the same direc-
ion. He obtained a professorship to do evening work in the
College of Pharmacy. This work, along strictly technical lines,
led him to a deeper study of plants, both anatomical and physio-
logical, by the use of the microscope and chemical reagents, than
that which then prevailed here. From this experience he was
soon led to deplore the superficiality of current work, and he
started private classes among the Club’s members for interesting
them in methods which he saw must soon become dominant.

14

Although general tendencies were not thus changed, many per-
sons were interested, and some of our best workers of the present
day acquired their first training in this direction from these
humble efforts of Professor Schrenck.

During the same time another worker, Professor E. H. Day,
who reminds us of Schrenck in some ways, was active in similar
work at the City Normal College. Tied down by the unceasing
drudgery of wholesale elementary teaching, he might have been
pardoned for falling into the rut and then into the slough, but on
the contrary, he kept both his interest and his activity fresh, and
he was ever alert in inspiring his students with a love of the sub-
jects studied, which might lead them later to continue their studies
as amateurs. In 1883, while occupying the chair at a Club
meeting, he suggested the appointment of a sub-section for the
study of physiological botany. A committee was appointed,
consisting of Messrs. Hyatt and Britton, and Miss Knight, now
Mrs. Britton. This was perhaps a very important historical
event. ‘

Dr. Timothy F. Allen had one of the longest uninterrupted
careers as a member in the annals of the Club, extending from
its foundation to 1902. During the early part of this career he
was very active in the meetings and in all the work of the Club,
and later he developed an interest as a successful investigator of
the Characeae. His later life was an intensely busy one in the
field of medicine, both as a practitioner and teacher, and his bo-
tanical activity was to a great extent crowded out, but he never
lost his interest in the Club, nor did he ever fail in his readiness
to respond to any special call for cooperation.

Mr. Wm. H. Rudkin was an active down-town business man,
who lent his fine abilities to the financial management of the Club
as its treasurer for many years when this duty required faithful-
ness, tact, sacrifice and responsibility. He was by no means
wanting in botanical acumen, nor failing in activity, but it is in
the capacity above mentioned that he is to-day deserving of our
special remembrance and gratitude.

Dr. Emily L. Gregory, though not one of the older members
of the Club, exerted a profound influence upon its character and

15

upon that of botanical work in the city. Thoroughly educated
in the best modern schools of Germany, and especially a disciple
of Schwendener, she became here a missionary of advanced work
and methods. She founded the botanical department of Barnard
College and established there a botanical center which has since
steadily grown in strength and influence, and is now one of our
most important botanical possessions.

It has been seen that the work of the Club was at first narrow
as to the subjects involved, because the science itself was so,
especially in this country. It continued afterward to retain this
character, largely by force of habit. It is not true, however, as
has been generally accepted, in response to the criticisms of those
who did not know, that its work was confined to accumulating

-and naming specimens, enumerating circumscribed floras and
studying individual structures. Its work was the study of living
manifestations of plants in the field, a study which has of late
been largely eliminated, to the very great misfortune of science,
as here pursued. There came a time when New York experi-
enced an invasion of botanists with concepts, knowledge, interests
and methods which were largely foreign to us. Their importa-
tions were of incalculable value to New York, and at the same
time most urgently needed, and resulted in giving to us a new,
modern and broad botany. The event was not, however, free
from unfortunate incidents. Laboratory work was given undue
prominence. Ecological and other field work came to be largely
neglected, and what might not inappropriately be called the dis-
jointed period of the Club’s history ensued.

With a few closing remarks, the history of the Club must be
dismissed from further consideration. Its publication work has
steadily increased, until it now includes three periodicals, the
smallest much larger than was the 4w//etzn until many years after
its commencement. It has published catalogues of plants of local
and distant areas, monographs of important groups, and results of
important anatomical, physiological and economic researches. It
has collected lists of works and workers, and maintained indoor
scientific meetings, at first one, then two monthly, and delightful,
and on the whole, very profitable, field meetings, hereafter to be

16

conducted on a systematic basis not previously attempted. It
has conducted elementary courses of instruction, and given lecture
courses. Its work has included every part of the vegetable king-
dom, and covered almost every part of the world. Its influence
in securing the establishment of our present botanical garden may
next be considered.

So eager was the desire of the early members of the Club to
observe how plants lived, that many of those able to own gardens
ignored vegetables and flowers, and maintained little botanical
gardens at their homes. Mr. Wm. Bower, for example, was a
hard-worked die-cutter of Newark, yet he managed to accumulate,
in his little city yard, a choice collection of native and foreign rari-
ties. These statements relate to a period when the most gener-
ous botanizing grounds were still within easy reach of everyone,
some of them existing even in the heart of the present city.

As succeeding decades of extending settlement destroyed the
localities which had been so greatly prized, not only in the remote
parts of the island but in the country round about, these people
not only mourned their present loss, but were alarmed by the
handwriting on the wall, and the demand for a botanical garden
arose independently in the mind of every botanist, professional
and'amateur. So early as 1874 the Club appointed a committee
to act with the New York Pharmaceutical Association in request-
ing the city to establish such a garden in Central Park.

As the educational side of our work grew in importance, and
especially in breadth, and as the student body doubled and
redoubled, the cry for the garden grew equally loud from that
direction, and continued until at length it was satisfied. The
great value to Harvard and its work of the well-managed plot
that it utilized in this way was appreciated and often discussed at
the little meetings which gathered around the old pot-stove in
Professor Newberry’s room, during his presidency of the Club.

Under the influence of Columbia’s progress, as already
described, it appreciated this want as much, probably, as any
other of our botanical elements. Its peculiar relations to the
former Elgin Garden were recalled in the public press. A con-
tributor to the New York Herald, of November 26 and 27, 1888,

ig

made an earnest appeal for the recognition by the city of this
great want. Dr. Arthur Hollick, to whose faithful and self-
sacrificing work as secretary, our Club largely owed its strength
for a prolonged period, directed our attention to these articles and
proposed that he write an official letter to the /eva/d endorsing
them. Such a letter was authorized, and it appeared on Decem-
ber 2 following. A committee was appointed consisting of Dr.
Hollick, Mr. E. E. Sterns, and Professor Newberry, to deliberate
and report to the Club whether it were advisable for us to take
any action for the furtherance of this movement. The possibility
of the realization of our long cherished hopes now began to take
possession of our minds, yet without any very strong hope being
entertained. The Club had no political influence and little acquain-
tance with those financial interests, the aid of which was rightly
deemed to be essential to success. As it resulted, however, some
of these men were led: to interest themselves in the proposition,
largely through the influence of Judges Addison Brown and
Chagesmes Daly, and of Mi. (Charles F. Cox’and Mr. Wm, &.
Dodge. For a long time the idea was regarded with favor in
influential circles, but without any definite steps being taken to
execute it. Finally, it was remembered that all history teaches
that when you have wearied of discussing a project, and are at
length really resolved to carry it out, you must call in the assist-
ance of the women. So a ladies’ committee was appointed and
held a memorable meeting at the residence of Mrs. Charles P.
Daly, which some of the men, your favored speaker among them,
were graciously permitted to attend. This influence, while but
one of many, each of which was necessary to success, seemed to
give the final impetus needed. Mr. Cornelius Vanderbilt assumed
the financial and executive management of the enterprise, and the
stage of organization was reached.

One element in the success of the Garden that has already shown
itself to possess a value beyond price, and which is certain to do
so with increasing clearness in the future, is the protective influ-
ence of its charter. Born of the learning, long and wide experi-
ence and ripe judgment of Judges Brown and Daly, and occupy-
ing their attention for considerably more than a year before they

18

were willing to regard it as satisfactory, it seems to provide for
every important contingency that it was possible to foresee, and
it promises a safety, permanence and stability that are too often
wanting in similar organizations.

To enter upon a discussion of the personal credit due in the
membership, the board of managers and of scientific directors, and
in the Garden staff, would be an agreeable pleasure, but I must
confine myself to the very earnestly made remark that the great
success of the Garden has been due to the love of the institution
and its work which has animated all concerned in it. It is this
which has lent faithfulness, earnestness and energy and has incited
to many acts of great sacrifice. If it could ever be said of any
similar institution, we are able to say of this that it is a monu-
ment of loving service, in which work has been accepted in con-
siderable part as its own reward. This is wholly true of Mrs.
Britton’s work in building up one of the most important depart-
ments of bryology in existence.

I dare not enter upon a detailed history of the Garden’s devel-
opment, and it has been so often and so recently recorded that I
do not deem it necessary. An excellent account of its organi-
zation and of Columbia’s relation to it, by Professor Underwood,
can be found in the Columbia Quarterly 4: 278. 1903. Our
charter was secured in 1891 and was amended in 1894. It was
agreed upon that 250 acres of park lands should be set apart for
our use and $500,000 appropriated for the museum building and
conservatories, as soon as an endowment fund of $250,000 was
obtained. This fund was completed in 1895, Columbia Univer-
sity making the first subscription of $25,000. With the election
of Dr. N. L. Britton as Director-in-Chief, and his selection of a
working staff, the preparations were complete and work began in

1896, the event which we are to-day celebrating. This was the
year in which the first part of Britton and Brown’s Illustrated
Flora was published. Ground was broken for the Museum
Building in December, 1897, and for the conservatories in 1898.
The Museum was opened in 189g. In 1898 the bulk of the her-
barium of Columbia College, numbering nearly half a million
specimens, and of its botanical library, including more than 5,000

19

bound volumes, was turned over to the Garden, in trust and for
its use, under certain stipulated conditions. Since then the her-
barium has been more than doubled, and the library has been
enlarged to 18,000 volumes. A vast amount of grading has
been done, many miles of walks and roadways built, bridges
erected, and a great increase in all the collections has been made.
Besides the Bulletin and the Journal, regularly published, the
Garden has entered upon a work of a much more ambitious
character. Utilizing the David Lydig fund, bequeathed by Judge
Daly, it has begun the publication of an elaborate ‘‘ North Ameri-
can Flora,” the first parts of which have already been published.
Provisions have been made also for the publication of colored
plates of American plants.

Among the very important undertakings maintained have been
extensive explorations, not only in the United States proper, but
in such distant regions as the West Indies and the Philippines.
A tropical station is maintained in Jamaica for the convenience
of visiting botanists. At the Garden a scholarship fund is main-
tained, by which it is rendered possible for investigators desiring
to pursue important studies here to be supported for a limited
period.

A bird’s-eye view only is permitted us of the botanical forces
at present active in our city, including schools and classes, so-
cieties and botanical gardens and parks.

Botanical instruction, in the form of nature study, is now an
integral part of our elementary school system, and is continued,
in one form or another, in the higher grades. Spring and fall
lecture courses and object teaching are conducted at this Garden
for the benefit of the grammar schools of the Bronx, and it is to
be hoped that provision may soon be made for extending the
opportunity to the other schools of the City. Systematic instruc-
tion for the botanical training of teachers is given at the City
Normal College, Teachers College, in the pedagogical department
of New York University, and by the Brooklyn Institute of Arts
and Sciences. Important work in the same direction, as well as
in that of original research, is conducted at the summer school
of science at Cold Spring Harbor. Columbia University provides

20

ample and exceedingly varied botanical work in its different depart-
ments. Botanical teaching at the College of Pharmacy, now a
department of Columbia University, dates back almost to the be-
ginning of the College, in 1829. Although its work is technical,
an effort has always been made to keep in sight its scientific basis.

At Columbia University itself, the department of botany is in
charge of Professor Lucien M. Underwood, one of the most eminent,
critical and conservative of botanical investigators, who has been
accorded the status in universal botany that he merits. The bulk
of the instruction work is under the immediate care of Dr. Carlton
C. Curtis, and none better is given in any modern university. It
seems most unfortunate that Dr. Curtis’s great work should not
be more generally known and more definitely recognized. This
work is most ably supported by Professor Herbert M. Richards
and Dr. Tracy E. Hazen in Barnard College, the department for
women, which corresponds to Columbia College, for men. The
instruction work at the New York Botanical Garden is of the
most advanced character. Only those who have demonstrated
their ability to pursue original investigations are admitted, and
these are expected to engage while here in work of that character.
More than half a hundred such pieces of original investigation
have been conducted here in a single year.

Of local societies engaged in botanical work we have a number
which are mere private associations, of a few persons, without
formal organization, besides others to be mentioned. We have
also a number, like the Linnaean Society, the Brooklyn Institute,
the Staten Island Association of Arts and Sciences, the Bronx
Society of Arts and Sciences, the West Side Natural History
Society, and the local chapter of the Agassiz Association, which
are engaged in the general pursuit of science, of which botany
forms a part. Those devoted solely to botanical work of some
sort are the New York Horticultural Society, which holds meet-
ings, conducts lecture courses, and gives exhibitions, with the
award of prizes; the Hulst Botanical Club of Brooklyn, a dis-
tinctly amateur organization ; the Botanical Club of the Normal
College, which aims to stimulate in its students and graduates a
love of study, outside of that required by the regular course of

instruction; and the Barnard Botanical Club, a somewhat similar
organization, which aims to keep alive in the graduates a regard
for the interests of the botanical department of that college, holds
annually two regular meetings and provides one public lecture,
and to which students of Barnard are eligible as members, after
having performed one year of botanical work at the college.

Lastly, there is the Torrey Botanical Club, which endeavors
to act as a central organization, representing in its membership
that of all the other active botanical organizations in the city.
Its present active membership numbers about 250, having in-
creased 25 per cent. during the present year. It publishes three
periodicals, holds two in-door meetings monthly, between October
and May inclusive, and field meetings each Saturday during the
season of plant growth. As has already been stated, an interest
in plants from any point of view is the only botanical qualifica-
tion required for membership, the nomination being made by
some member of the Club and approved by the committee on
admissions.

Among botanical gardens, it is not out of place for us mentally
to include all the numerous and extensive horticultural establish-
ments which abound in and about New York, among the stock
of which is to be found such a great variety of plants of interest
from botanical considerations. The public parks of this city are
also to be justly regarded as affording important advantages for
botanical work. Active and enthusiastic botanists are connected
with them, and the planting, labelling and exhibiting are con-
ducted with a view to interesting the public in the scientific basis
of the work. The great collection of North American woods at
the American Museum deserves special mention. People in this
city who are interested in such subjects should also make them-
selves acquainted with the elaborate park system of Essex County,
New Jersey, which has been laid out and organized with studious
regard to future conditions and needs, and will undoubtedly de-
velop important botanical features as time goes on.

Our own Botanical Garden you are to inspect to-day under
unusually favorable circumstances. Even this, however, will give
you but a very inadequate idea of the breadth and depth of its

22

organization and character. There is scarcely a department of
botanical work for the development of which provision is not
made, the several departments being under the care of accom-
plished specialists. As you go about the grounds and enjoy the
beautiful grades, the roads, walks, and bridges, you perhaps do
not realize the immensity of the task involved in bringing them
into existence and at the same time establishing and developing
the scientific, cultural and educational departments. From the
time of its foundation, the Garden has had more than one interest
clamoring loudly for the expenditure of every available dollar.
Its economical and efficient management has usually contrived to
divide that dollar and make each part of it do the work of the
whole.

In the conduct of any growing enterprise not only does each
step taken become a new point of departure, but new centers of
work become established by the division of the old; and so our
review would not be complete without a glance at the most im-
portant requirements for the future. One of these is the organ-
ization of a well-equipped botanical department at New York
University. One of the leading universities of the country, with
well-organized departments and many hundreds of students, it
seems a continued misfortune that it should not be in a position
to utilize the many facilities which we have to-day considered,
and equally so that our science should not profit by the stimulus
and support which weuld result from the maintenance of an ade-
quate center of activity at University Heights.

Our Botanical Garden suffers greatly from the want of a larger
endowment fund. Its charter provides for the construction and
maintenance of its framework, but back of this lies the necessity
for supporting its higher life, and for this support we must natu-
rally look to its endowment. The two should keep close pace.
The crown of the greater tree demands a greater root system for
its support. Our plant has increased wonderfully in ten years,
both in size and in the intensity of its activity, while the endow-
ment has remained stationary. Its increase to the sum of
$1,000,000 has been undertaken, and the amount is none too
large and can come none too quickly. One of the special needs

23
of the Garden, or rather of this part of the country through its
Garden, is a department of forestry. From an economic point
of view, this is by far the most important department of botany
at the present time. Our need of increased forest resources is
already alarming to every serious political economist. When an
attempt is made to provide them, we find that we do not know
how ; that every tree must be known separately, and that until
this is done practical operations must fail; and that the acquisi-
tion of this necessary knowledge is as slow as the growth of the
trees themselves. It is urgently necessary that such centers of
investigation should be established in numbers. Scarcely any-
where is there an institution that combines so many advantages
for a successful organization of this kind as here. Our Club has
this year undertaken to arouse interest in the subject by pro-
viding a course of ten field lessons, conducted by competent in-
structors, and open to all our members, without charge.

Did time permit, I should be glad to speak on this occasion of
the special needs of our Club. Inageneral way we should get back
to the work for which we were originally organized —the study
of our local flora, at present construed as that within a 100-mile
radius of this city. To do it properly provides ample work for
years to come. It is a work of important scientific value, yet
includes popular features calculated to interest every member.
All that is needed is a leader, and this is the point of difficuity.
He must be a capable botanist, and he must give practically his
whole time to the work. This means that he must be compen-
sated, and this is possible only through an endowment fund, or
through a very large membership list, for both of which we
earnestly hope. If 200 others of the 10,000 or more persons of
this section whose interest in plants entitles them to become
members of the Club would do so, there would be ample pro-
vision for the undertaking of this work.

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