Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 80.djvu/345

Rh Avenue, opens northward through an esplanade to the museum building, and southward and eastward to the public conservatories and the laboratory and administration building. In the northeast corner of the garden is a lake of about three acres in area, and the adopted plans provide for a small stream leading southward through the grounds from the lake. The lake and stream together will afford excellent opportunity for aquatic planting.

 Main floor plan. The northeast house (at the left) connects with the Physiological Laboratory. The division of the northeast wing into four houses is made with reference to their use for class work and for investigations.

The location of the garden is of considerable physiographic interest, for it is situated on the extreme southern margin of the terminal moraine deposited by the continental ice-sheet. As is well known, a portion of this moraine forms the so-called "backbone" of Long Island, and two or three morainal knolls give relief to the northwestern and the eastern edges of the grounds. The remainder of the garden is on the area of the overwash plain lying south of the moraine, but the surface soil is no longer of geological significance in this connection, as there have been considerable grading and top-soiling in connection with park operations. A few large glacial boulders remain in place and exposed at the surface.

The laboratory building, when completed, will be a one-story and basement structure of brick, faced with concrete, about 240 feet long, and 50 feet wide, with a maximum elevation of about 60 feet (Kg. 2). At suitable places on the exterior will be placed the names of noted botanists of the past. For this purpose there are twenty-two spaces on the frieze for names of greatest prominence, each space to contain only one name. Under each window is a panel to contain three names. The choice of names was determined by a vote of contemporary American botanists.