2. Gardening in North America, in respect to Botanic Gardens, and the Culture of Flowers and Plants of Ornament
858. The American government has shown itself not insensible to the advantages of encouraging among its subjects a feeling for other pursuits than those connected with mere mercantile speculations. Seated in a country rich beyond all others in stores of botanical wealth, it would have been indeed surprising if the study of botany had not been among the first of those objects which the American government felt itself bound to patronise. Accordingly, we find botanic gardens and professorships attached to the American universities, and expeditions fitted out for the purpose of making scientific discoveries. At one time the country was chiefly known by the investigations of Europeans; but now there are the native names of Hosack, Elliot, Nuttall, Torrey, Barton, Bigelow, and others, all of which deserve honourable mention for their exertions in the protection or prosecution of native botanical investigations, and some of whom are held in high estimation even among Europeans. There is also a horticultural society established at New York. (Gard. May., vol. i. p. 52.)
