Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 50.djvu/195

Rh seventy-five to a mountain garden at an elevation of about seven thousand feet, and the remainder is comprised in a mountain forest. The laboratories are most excellently equipped for investigation in forestry, agricultural chemistry, and pharmacology,besides the main divisions of the pure science. In addition to a very complete library and herbarium, the administration has at its service a lithographic establishment for the preparation of illustrations for its publications. It would be difficult to overestimate the value of the results accomplished by the various divisions of this institution, or to predict its future performances. By reason of its facilities and resources it has become a Mecca for the botanists of the world.

The foundation of a botanic garden in the United States dates from that of John Bartram in Philadelphia in 1728, which is still preserved in a modified form. Botany has been given an important place in the college curriculum in America scarcely more than sixty years. In comparatively recent years a few gardens have come into existence, nearly all of which are still in a state of rapid development. During this period of flux they have been able only to afford facilities for general elementary instruction, and to make possible original work in the classification of native plants—a line of research which has been carried on more or less steadily since the earlier settlements were made on this side of the Atlantic. At the present time a few have begun to offer opportunities for research in the more important branches of botanical science. Among these may be mentioned the Missouri Botanical Garden at St. Louis, connected with the Washington University, the Botanical Garden and Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, and the Botanic Garden of New York, now in process of formation and to be connected with Columbia University.

The Botanic Garden of Harvard University was established in 1805. It has an area of seven acres, on which are cultivated about seven thousand species of plants, principally native. For this reason it finds but one greenhouse necessary. The garden contains the famous herbarium and library in which Asa Gray accomplished his work on the plants of North America. The main laboratories and museums are located in the university buildings. Some very important work on the morphology of the cryptogams has been published from these laboratories. The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University is organized entirely independent of the botanic garden. It includes an area of two hundred and fifty acres, of which one hundred and sixty are planted with trees and shrubs. It is furnished with a museum, herbarium, and library, for the purpose of aiding study and research in forestry and dendrology. By an arrangement with the city of Boston the