[These notes on American gardens, edited by Tom Turner, were written by John Claudius Loudon in 1834 for the second edition of his Encyclopaedia of Gardening. Politically, Loudon was a utilitarian, a radical, an advocate of public parks and a great admirer of the United States, then less than 60 years old. The admiration Loudon expresses for George Washington and Thomas Jefferson is unusual for the leaders of a recent foe. Loudon had not visited America but he had many sources of information and Ann Leighton in her book on American Gardens in the Eighteenth Century (University of Massachusetts Press, 1976) writes that 'The descriptions of American gardens quoted in Loudon's Encyclopaedia, give us a sense of eighteenth-century American garden history encapsulated that would be hard for us to rival in any summation of our own'. The paragraph numbers are Loudon's.]
1473. Landscape Gardening is practiced in the United States on a comparatively limited scale; because, in a country where all men have equal rights, and where every man, however humble, has a house and garden of his own, it is not likely that there should be many large parks. The only splendid examples of park and hot-house gardening that, we trust, will ever be found in the United States, and ultimately in every other country, are such as will be formed by towns and villages, or other communities, for the joint use and enjoyment of all the inhabitants or members. With a view to this end, and to this end only, are the gardens of the monarchs and magnates of Europe at all worth studying.
1474. New York State Gardens. Hyde Park, on the Hudson, according to a recent writer in the Gardener's Magazine, Mr. Gordon, is the first in point of landscape-gardening in America. Its proprietor, Dr. David Hosaek, is a botanist, and a man of taste. The natural capacity of this seat for improvement has been taken advantage of in a very judicious manner; and every circumstance has been laid hold of, and acted upon, which could tend to beautify or adorn it. The mansion is splendid and convenient. The park is extensive, the rides numerous, and the variety of delightful distant views embrace every kind of scenery. The pleasure-grounds are laid out on just principles, and in a most judicious manner; and there is an excellent range of hot-houses, with a collection of rare plants, remarkable for their variety, cleanliness, and handsome growth. (Gardener's Magazine, vol. viii. p 282.) Mrs. Trollope, speaking of this villa, says, "Hyde Park is the magnificent seat of Dr. Hosack: here the misty summit of the distant Catskill begins to form the outline of the landscape; and it is hardly possible to imagine a more beautiful place." (Domestic Manners of the Americans, vol. ii. p. 206.) Mr. Stuart speaks in raptures of "the view over the most beautiful of all beautiful rivers, from the magnificent terrace in the front of Dr. Hosack's house, situated in the most enviable of the desirable situations on the river." Hyde Park, he says, "is quite a show place, in the English sense of the word." (Three Years, &c., vol. ii. p. 549.)
1475. Albany. The residence of General Van Rensellaer, the most wealthy landed proprietor in the United States, consists of a mansion at the north end of Albany, with more of the accompaniments of garden, shrubbery, conservatory, &c., than is often seen in America; but no great quantity of land is devoted to what we call pleasure-grounds, though the estate of the proprietor extends twelve miles in every direction. (Stuart's Three Years' Residence, &c. vol. i. p. 52.)
1476. Woodlawn. There is hardly an acre of Manhatten Island, says Mrs. Trollope, but what shows some pretty villa or stately mansion. The most chosen of these are on the North and East Rivers, to whose margins their lawns descend. Among these, perhaps the loveliest is one (Woodlawn) situated in the beautiful village of Bloominsgdale. Here, within the space of sixteen acres, almost every variety of garden scenery may be found. To describe alt its diversity of hill and dale, of wood and lawn, of rock and river, would be in vain, for I never saw any thing like it." (Domestic Manners of the Americans, &c. vol. ii. p. 183.)
1477. Waltham House (fig. 271.), the property of Theodore Lyman, in the state of Massachusetts, is situated in a very flourishing country, about nine miles from
Boston. The grounds round the house consist of a lawn of a mile in length, in front, upon which there are many fine oaks, English and American elms, linden, and other valuable form trees. A deep and clear stream of water, varying in breadth, runs the whole length of the lawn, and afterwards falls into Charles River. There is an extensive park, containing about forty deer, principally of the Bengal breed; to the left and rear of the house I the kitchen-garden, grapery, green-house, hot-house, wall for fruit, &c.
(Gardener's Magazine, vol. i. p. 205.)
1478. Philadelphia Gardens. The neighborhood of Philadelphia is rendered interesting by a succession gentlemen's seats on the Delaware, which, says Mrs. Trollope, " if less elaborately finished in architecture and garden grounds than the lovely villas on the Thames are still beautiful objects to gaze upon as you float rapidly past, on the broad silvery that washes their lawns. They present a picture of wealth and enjoyment that well with the noble city to which they are an appendage." (Domestic Manners of the Americans vol. ii. p. 153.)
1479. New Jersey Gardens. The seat of Joseph Bonaparte, near Bordentown, on the New Jersey shore Delaware, is in the midst of an extensive tract of land, on which the ex-monarch has built several houses, which are occupied by French tenants. The country is very flat, but a terrace of two sides has been raised, commanding a fine reach of the river; at the point where this terrace forms a right angle, a lofty chapel has been erected, 'which looks very much like an observatory. The highest part of this building presents in every direction the appearance of an immense cross; the transept being formed by the projection of an ample balcony, which surrounds a tower. (Domestic Manners of the Americans, vol. ii. p. 154.)
1480. Connecticut Gardens. Monte Video, the residence of Daniel Wordsworth, Esq., says Mr. Stuart "stands in a very fine situation, not less than 600 feet above the Connecticut River, and its beautiful meadow scenery. The approach to the house is about three miles in length and is carried over a succession of small hills finely wooded. There is a handsome piece of water near the house, and a bill behind it; from a tower on the top of which there is a magnificent view, bounded by the hills of Massachusetts, of as rich and fertile a country as there is in the world, watered by a great river, the Connecticut, the windings of which are all in sight. Advantage has certainly been taken of the natural beauties of in laying it out-the road, the piece of water, and the grounds; but nothing the place is kept in the handsome style of an English country residence." (Three Years 7 vol. i. p. 363.)
1481. Virginia Gardens. Mount Vernon was the seat of General Washington, "first in peace, first in war, and first in the hearts of his countrymen." This noble residence is situated on the banks of the Potomac; a magnificent river, which at the city of Washington "makes a beautiful sweep, and forms a sort of bay, round which the city is built. Washington was buried at Mount Vernon, and it is easy to distinguish from the river the cypresses that wave over his grave." (Domestic Manners of the Americans, vol. ii. p. 306.) Mr. Stuart informs us that the extent of this property is 10,000 acres. About five miles of the drive from Washington, pass through wooded ground belonging to the property. The situation of the house, on a fine hank of land above the Potomac, and the elevation and undulation of the neighboring are altogether very desirable, and afford great facilities for making Mount Vernon magnificent place; but neither the house nor the offices, nor any part of the grounds, are in any thing like good order. Every thing seems to have remained unchanged, by time, since Washington died. The narrow path at the top of the bank also river, which was began by him, just before he was carried off by sudden illness, remains in its unfinished state. The house at Mount Vernon contains only one apartment which would be considered good in Britain. (Three Years , &c. vol. i. p. 397.)
1482. Monticello, the seat of the immortal Jefferson, is situated on the summit of an eminence commanding extensive prospects on all sides. It is ascended by a spiral approach, laid out by the proprietor himself, and passing through fruit and ornamental trees, many of which were planted by his own hands. The southern declivity of the is covered with vineyards, the east and west sides by orchards, the north side bye forest, and the champaign lands below are devoted to the culture of corn and tobacco In the extreme distance, looking from the south front of the house towards the left, appears Jefferson College, a magnificent quadrangle, of Grecian architecture, founded by the first modern statesman wino duly appreciated the education of the mass of society and the evils of an established church. Jefferson was a skilful agriculturist, as is proved by many of his letters in his Life and Correspondence, and by several articles of his in the Transactions of American societies. It was fitting that such a man should have such a residence. (Ibid.)
1483. Arlington, the seat of Mr. Custie, the grandson of General Washington's wife is a noble-looking place, having a portico of stately white columns; which, as the mansion stands high, with a background of dark woods, forms a beautiful object in the landscape. (Domestic Manners of the Americans, vol. ii. p. 330.)
1484.Washington Gardens. Kaleirama is about a mile from Washington, on high terrace ground, and is a very pretty place. It is not large, or in any way magnificent, but the view from it is charming; and it has a wood behind, covering about 200 acres of broken ground, that slopes down to a dark cold little river, so closely shut in by rocks and evergreens, that it might serve as a noonday bath for Diana and her nymphs. The whole of this wood is filled with wild flowers, but such as we cherish fondly in our gardens. (Domestic Manners of the Americans, vol. ll. p. 330.)
l485. Stonington is about two miles from the most romantic point of the Potomac river; and Virginia spreads her wild but beautiful and most fertile paradise on the opposite shore. The Maryland side partakes of the same character, and displays an astonishing profusion of wild fruits and flowers. The walk from Stonington to the falls of the Potomac is through scenery that can hardly be called forest, park, or garden; but which partakes of all three. Cedars, tulip trees, planes, sumacs, junipers, and oaks of various kinds, shade the path. Below are Judas trees, dogwood, azaleas, and wild roses; while wild vines [Vitis vulpinus?] with their rich expansive leaves and sweet blossom rivaling the mignonette in fragrance, cluster round the branches; and straw berries, violets, anemones, heartsease, and wild pinks literally cover the ground. The sound of the falls is heard at Stonington, and the gradual increase of this sound is one of the agreeable features of this delicious walk. A rumbling, turbid, angry little rivulet, called the Branch Creek, flows through evergreens and flowering underwood, and is crossed a plusieurs reprises by logs thrown from rock to rock. The thundering noise of the still unseen falls suggests an idea of danger while crossing these rude bridges, which hardly belongs to them; and, having reached the other side of the creek, the walk continues under the shelter of evergreens another quarter of a mile, and then emerges on the rocky depths of an enormous river; and so large arc the black crags that enclose it, that the thundering torrents of water rushing through, over, and among the rocks of this awful chasm, appear lost and swallowed up in it. ((Domestic Manners of the Americans, vol. ii. p. 4.)
1486. Charleston Gardens At Charleston the houses of the suburbs are, for the most part, surrounded by gardens, in which orange trees with most splendid ripe fruit, monthly roses in full bloom, and a variety of other flourishing plants, display themselves. The greater part of the habitations have piazzas and spacious balconies. Upon the walls and columns are creeping vines, and a great number of passion-flowers (Flint's Geography and History of the United States, vol. ii. p. 4.)
1487. Savannah Gardens. At Savannah, the seat of Thomas Young, Esq., is said by Mr. Gordon " to surpass all others in the south. It is rich in the choicest and most expensive plants that can be obtained either in America or Europe." (Gardeners Magazine, vol. viii. p. 286.)
1488. The Garden of Lewis Le Conte, Esq., near
Riceborough, is said by Mr. Gordon to be the richest in bulbs that he had ever seen. M. Lu Conte is an excellent botanist and vegetable physiologist. He has also paid great attention to the subject of arboriculture. (Ibid., vol. viii. p. 287.) The village of Riceborough (fig. 272.) is very picturesque. Most of the houses have verandas; and it is observed both by Captain Halt, and by Mr. Stuart, that the pride of India, the Lagerstroemia indica is planted along the streets, as well as in those of most of the southern towns, particularly Charleston one Savannah (Hall's
Sketches &c., and Three Years in North America, &c.)
1489. Niagra Falls Gardens. Country-house in the neighborhood of the Falls of Niagara. Captain Hall, is his Travels in Upper Canada, relates a curious anecdote of landscape-gardening in America. A gentleman, wishing to form a country residence as expeditiously as possible selected a certain spot in the midst of the wilderness, which, he conceived, the nature of the ground, the description of trees which grew upon it, and the extent of view which it commanded, might be converted, with little trouble, from its wild state into a beautiful park, such as must have cost, in the ordinary process of old countries at least one century, if not two, to bring to perfection. Some of the oaks and other trees were particularly beautiful, and of immense size; and he determined on removing only those trees which encumbered the ground, leaving the others in all their native beauty. The trees were marked accordingly; but the proprietor was unfortunately obliged to be absent when the thinning took place, and the workmen, who from their infancy had known nothing about trees, except that they ought to be cut down as fast as possible, could not conceive it possible that their employer wished so large a number of trees to saved, and accordingly decided among themselves that he had made a mistake, and that the small number of trees marked to be cut down, were, in fact, those intended to be save! The first thing, accordingly, that struck the master's eye, on his return, was the whole of his noble grove lying flat upon the ground, while only a dozen or two craggy oaks, and hemlocks, destined for the fire, were left standing to tell the tale.(Travels North America, vol. i. p. 267.)
1490.Allegheny Gardens. The whole region of the Allegheny mountains is a garden. "The magnificent rhododendron fringes every cliff, nestles beneath every rock, and blooms around tree. The azalea, the sumac, and every variety of that beautiful mischief the kalmia are in equal profusion." Cedars, firs, and the hemlock spruce attain here the greatest splendor and perfection of growth." Oak and beech, with innumerable roses and wild vines hanging in beautiful confusion among their branches, were in many placed scattered among the evergreens, and the earth was carpeted with various mosses, and creeping plants. Often, on descending into the narrow valleys, spots were found in a state of cultivation. These little gardens, or fields, were "hedged round with sumacs rhododendrons, and azaleas; and the cottages were covered with roses. These are spots of great beauty, and a clear stream is always found running through them which is generally converted to the use of the miller."(Domestic Manners of the Americans, vol. ii. p. 276.)
1491 " I never saw so many autumn flowers as grow in the woods and sheepwalks of Maryland," says the same writer. "Let no one visit America without having first studied botany: it is an amusement that helps one wonderfully up and down hill, and must be superlatively valuable in America, both from the lack of other amusements, and the plentiful material for enjoyment in this." (Ibid., vol. ii p. 91.)
1492. It is easy to foresee that America will one day be possessed of public gardens far superior to any now existing in Europe. Our grounds for this prediction are, that in America there are no other means by which the grandeur and magnificence of gardening can be displayed; that the Americans delight in doing everything on the grandest scale; and that nature has bountifully supplied every description of material. Taste and wealth, which are rapidly accumulating, are all that are wanting to realize this view. In the mean time, all the old towns have public walks or garden and, in the new parts of the country, all nature, as Mrs. Trollope has remarked, is so beautiful, that there is no need of them.
1493. New York Public Gardens. At New York "the principal promenade is the battery; and a more beautiful one no city can boast. It commands a fine view of the magnificent bay, and forms a termination to the splendid street called the Broadway, which runs through the whole city, and is ornamented by several handsome buildings, some of which are surrounded by grass and trees. The park in which stands the noble city hall, is a very fine area." Ibid vol. ii. p. 158.) St. John's Park is of considerable extent, and has lately been thrown open to the inhabitants: it is tastefully and very judiciously planted, with the ornamental trees and shrubs indigenous to the country. (Gardener's Magazine, vol. iii. p. 347.) There are a few trees in different parts of the city, observes Mrs. Trollope, and many young ones have been planted, and guarded with much care: were they more abundant, it would be extremely agreeable, for the reflected light of the fierce American summer "sheds in tolerable day." The enclosure in the center of Hudson's Square (New York) is beautiful. It is excellently well planted with a great variety of trees, and only wants our frequent and careful mowing to make it equal to any square in London. The iron railing which surrounds this enclosure is as high, and as handsome, as that of the Tuilleries; and it will give some Idea of the care bestowed on its decoration, to know that the gravel for the walks was conveyed by barges from Boston, not as ballast, but as freight. (Domestic Manners of the Americans, &c. vol. ii. p. 160.)
1494. Hoboken, on the North River, about three miles from New York, is a public walk of great beauty and attraction. A broad belt of light underwood and flowering shrubs studded at intervals with lofty forest trees, runs for two miles along a cliff which overhangs the matchless Hudson; sometimes it feathers the rocks down to its very margin and at others leaves a pebbly shore just rude enough to break the gentle waves and make a music which mimics softly the loud chorus of the ocean. Through this beautiful little wood, a broad well-graveled terrace is led by every point which can exhibit the scenery to advantage; narrower and wilder paths diverge at intervals, some into the deeper shadow of the woods, and some shelving gradually to the pretty coves below. At Hoboken there are various repositories or smoking-houses some not unpleasing to the eye: one, in particulars has quite the air of a Grecian temple; and, did they drink wine instead of whisky within it, might be inscribed to Bacchus.(Domestic Manners of the Americans.) vol. ii. p. 170.)
1495. Public Promenade in Philadelphia There is a very pretty enclosure before the walnut tree entrance to the statehouse, with good well kept gravel walks, and many beautiful flowering trees. It is laid down in grassy not in turf; which, indeed, Mrs. Trollope observes, "is a luxury she never saw in America. Near this enclosure is another of a similar description, Washington Square, which has numerous trees, with commodious seas placed beneath their shade." (Ibid., vol. ii. p. 48.) These and all the public squares of Philadelphia were laid out and planted, in consequence of a petition drawn up by Dr. Mease, and signed, on his personal application by such a number of citizens, as produced the effect intended.(Gardener's Magazine, vol. iv. p. 387.)
1496. Fair Mount Park. Waterworks at Fair Mount, near Philadelphia " Fair Mount is one of the prettiest spots the eye can look upon. A broad wear is thrown across the river kill, which produces the sound and look of a cascade. On the farther side of the river is a gentleman's seat, the beautiful lawn of which slopes down to the water's edge; and groups of weeping willows and other trees throw their shadows on the stream. The works themselves are enclosed in a simple but very handsome building of freestone, which ha an extended front opening upon a terrace which overhangs the river: behind the building, and divided from it only by a lawn, rises a lofty wall of solid limestone rock, which has at one or two points been cut into, for the passage of the water into a magnificent reservoir, ample and elevated enough to send it through the whole city. From the crevices of this rock the catalpa was every where pushing forth, covered with its beautiful blossoms. Beneath one of these trees, an artificial opening in the rock gives passage to a stream of water, clear and bright as crystal which is received in a stone basin of simple workman ship, having a cup for the service of the thirsty traveler. At another point a portion of the water, in its upward way to the reservoir, is permitted to spring forth in a perpetual jet d'eau that returns in a silver shower upon the head of a marble naiad of snowy whiteness, admirably relieved by its dark rocky background and the flowery catalpas which shadow it." (Domestic Manners of the Americans, vol. ii. p. 44.)
1497. Washington Public Gardens. In the city of Washington there are several squares newly planted and some of the streets are bordered by rows of trees. The avenue of Pennsylvania, when the trees are a few years older, will be the finest street in the world; it leads to the capitol, a Grecian building, on the capitals of the columns of which the Indian corn takes the place of the acanthus.
1498. At Baltimore, the public walk is along a fine terrace belonging to a fort nobly situated on the Patapsco, and commanding the approach from Chesapeake flay, and a magnificent view of the city and river. The terrace is ornamented with a profusion of evergreens and wild roses.(Ibid., vol. ii. p. 303.)
1499. At Cincinnati there is a public garden where the people go to eat ices and look at roses. For the preservation of the flowers, there is placed at the end of one of the walks a kind of sign-post representing a Swiss peasant girl holding in her band a scroll, equesting that the roses might not be gathered. (Ibid.)
1500. At Boston there are extensive public pleasure grounds called the Common, consisting of seventy-five acres, in the very heart of the city. This piece of ground is well laid out, and contains many fine trees. The statehouse, and the handsome houses of the city, surround it on three sides.
1501. Mount Auburn Cemetery. A public cemetery was formed in 1831 at Mount Auburn, about three miles from Boston, and is easily approached either by the road, or the river which washes its borders. On the eligibility of the situation, and the manner in which it should be laid out, a writer in the North American Review has the following remarks: - "It affords every variety of soil and elevation which trees or flowers would require, with streams and meadows, from which ponds may be made for plants which love the water. The plants of every climate may find there a suitable home. It might be thought that would require many years to cover it with verdure; but nature has anticipated this objection; it being already clothed with trees and shrubs of almost all descriptions which grow in this part of the country. The most striking part of this tract is a conical hill of considerable height, which commands an extensive and beautiful prospect. This is reached by a gentle ascent, which winds like a road round the bill, with valleys on each side and is so exact in its bearing, that it is difficult to persuade one's self that man had no agency in forming it. The top of the height is an admirable place for a monument intended to be seen at a distance, and the sides will afford room for the resting place of many generations. The whole country would not afford a better spot for the purpose than this. it is consecrated already by many delightful associations in the memory of most of those who have left the university for many years past; and the plan proposed instead of breaking up this favorite resort, would only render it better suited to aid the inspirations of science, feeling, or imagination. There is something unpleasant to many in the idea of cultivating the place of death. This may be owing to the old prejudice which regards nature and art as opposed to each other. Nature, under all circumstance was meant to be improved by human care; it is unnatural to leave it to itself; and the traces of art are never unwelcome, except when it defeats the purposes and refuses to follow the suggestions of nature. We trust that the public-spirited authors of this design will consider themselves as giving a direction to public taste; and that they will therefore not suffer the ground to be disfigured with dungeon-like tombs, which are only suited to the cellars of churches and burying-places of cities, where the dead cannot find room to lie dust to dust. The monuments also deserve regard. The stiff and ungainly headstone should be banished, to give place to the cippus, or some simple form suited to resist the elements, and receive inscriptions. But the ornaments of the sepulcher should be trees and flowers. Let the monuments be found in the noble forests of our land; let them not be such as the elements waste, but such as time only strengthens and repairs." (North. Amer. Rev., Oct. 1851.)
1502. Newhaven Cemetery. The burying-ground at Newhaven "is laid out with more care and attention, and is better kept, than any ground devoted to the same purpose in the United States. It is of considerable size, and formed into broad lanes, shaded by weeping willows poplars, &c. The whole has a good effect; many of the monuments are fine, and considerable number of them were brought from Italy. In short, the burying-ground at Newhaven is quite the Père la Chaise of the United States." (Stuart's Three Years, &c.vol. i. p. 365.)
1503. Guilford Cemetery. The cemetery of the Episcopal church of the town of Guilford is in a public 1 square, and unenclosed. The graves are therefore trampled upon, and the monuments injured, both by men and cattle. On this cemetery Dr. Dwight makes the following judicious remarks :-" The design of locating places of burial in this manner was probably good. In its execution, however, it evidently defeats itself, while it is also a plain violation of propriety. Instead of producing those solemn thoughts and encouraging those moral propensities, which it was intended to inspire, it renders death and the grave such familiar objects to the eye, as to prevent them from awakening any serious regard. Here, particularly, both the remains and memorials of the dead are presented to the mind in circumstances so gross, and indicative of so little respect in the living, as to eradicate every emotion naturally excited by the remembrance of the deceased, and give to those which remain a coarseness and commonness, destructive of all moral influence. Nor is it unreasonable to suppose that the proximity of those sepulchral fields to human habitations is injurious to health. Some of them have, I believe, been found to be offensive; and will probably be allowed to have been noxious Even in eases where nothing of this nature is perceptible, it is far from being clear that effluvia too subtle to become an object of sense do not ascend in sufficient quantities to affect with disease, or at least with a predisposition to disease, those who, by living in the neighborhood, are continually breathing this mischievous exhalation." (Dwight's Travels in New England and New York, Svo, London, 1823, vol. ii. p. 489.)
1504. In Virginia and Maryland almost every family mansion has its little graveyard, sheltered by locust and cypress trees; and one mansion on the Delaware, near Philadelphia, has the monument which marks the family resting-place, rearing itself in all the gloomy grandeur of black and white marble, exactly opposite the door of entrance. (Domestic Manners of the Americans, vol. ii. p. 133.)
1505. 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 bad not been among the first of those objects which the American government felt itself hound to patronize. 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 honorable 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. (Gardener's Magazine, vol. 1. p.52).
1506. America is rich in botany, especially in trees. Dr. Hosack, in the preface to his Hortus Elginensis, observes, "that although much has been done by the governments of Great Britain, France, Spain, Sweden, and Germany in the investigation of the vegetable productions of America although much has been accomplished by the labors of Catesby, Kaim, Wangenheim Schoepf, Walter, and the Michaux; and by our countrymen, Clayton, the Bartrams, Colder, Muhlenburg Marshall, Cutler, and the learned P. Barton of Pennsylvania, much yet remains to be done in this western part of the globe. "There were in America, at an early periods men who recommended the necessity of botanic gardens, as Lieutenant Governor Colden and Dr. Middleton of New York, in 1769; and, upon the revival of the medical school in Columbia College, 1192, a professor of botany was appointed, and Dr. Mitchel was appointed professor. Dr. Hosack succeeded Dr. Mitchel; and the result was, first, the latter professor's establishing a botanical garden at his own expense, and afterwards government purchasing it of him for the benefit of the medical schools of New York; and it is now known as the New York Botanic Garden.
1507. New York Botanic Garden. The Botanic Garden of New York contains twenty acres: the first catalogue was published in 1806, and the second in 1811, containing nearly 4000 species. Statement, as to the Elgin Botanical Garden by Dr. Hosack. New York, 1811.)
1508. The first systematic work upon the flora of North America appeared in 1809, from the pen of André Michaux, under the title of Flora Borealis Mariana. Partial floras had been previously published by Walter, Clayton, Grooviest, and others; but the most extensive appeared in 1816, by F. Puish, a Prussian botanist, who spent nearly twelve years beyond the Atlantic in botanic travel, and in the management of two botanic gardens; the last that of Elgin. From the preface to this work we are enabled to give the names of the principal botanic gardens in the United States. In British America there are none. The first gardens Pursh saw were the old established gardens of M. Marshall, author of a small treatise on the forest-trees of North America. These were rather on the decline. The botanic garden of J. and W. Bartram, on the banks of the Delaware, near Philadelphia (now Garr's nursery), was founded by their father, under the patronage of Dr. Fothergill. The garden of the American patriot, Hamilton, was in his time one of the richest in plants in America. Those of Dr. Hosack, Mr. Pratt Mr. Fox, Dr. Wray, Mr. Oemler, Mr. Young, and M. Le Conte, are also all celebrated for their botanical riches' (See (Gardener's Magazine vol. viii. p. 27.)
1509.Cambridge Botanic Garden. The Botanical Garden at Cambridge, in the state of Massachusetts, was commenced in 1801, by subscription. The object of the establishment is the promotion of knowledge in native and foreign plants useful in agriculture horticulture, and medicine, well as the encouragement of the sciences of botany and entomology. There being 4 no competent knowledge in the country as to what were the wants of a botanic gardens the professor, peck, was sent to Europe, and returned with plans, and a collection of books. This garden suffered for some time from want of funds, and would long since have followed the fate of the Charleston public garden founded by Dr. Hosaek (which was purchased by the state at the price of 70,000 dollars), and would, like it, have been converted into a wilderness, had not the visitors applied for and obtained the aid of the legislature of a very enlightened legislature who, not mistaking false maxims of economy for true ones, saw, in the destruction of a great public work, great loss; deeming that the riches and prosperity of a state are as much promoted to say nothing of its reputation, by wise and generous establishments for the promotion of knowledge as by any financial measures. (New York Farmer, vol. 1. p. 185.)
1510. Baltimore Botanic Garden. A botanic garden at Baltimore was commenced in 1830; and an extensive correspondence with the nurserymen and curators of botanic gardens in Europe will, it hoped, soon procure for it a respectable collection (Gardener's Magazine, vol. vii. p. 668.)
1511. Montreal Botanic Garden. The botanic garden of Montreal is said, by Dc Roos, to exhibit the appearance of a beautiful park; it was, however, when he saw it, rather indifferently supported by the government. (Personal Narrative, &c.) p. 133).
