A statement of facts relative to the establishment and progress of the Elgin Botanic Garden, and the subsequent disposal of the same to the State of New-York / [David Hosack].

  • Hosack, David, 1769-1835.
Date:
1811
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A statement of facts relative to the establishment and progress of the Elgin Botanic Garden, and the subsequent disposal of the same to the State of New-York / [David Hosack]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Ordered, That the clerk deliver the said bill to the honourable the assem¬ bly, and request their concurrence to the same.* In Assembly, February 13tfi, 1806. A message from the honourable the senate, delivered by their clerk, with the bill therein mentioned, was read, informing, that the senate have passed the bill, entitled, “ An act for the support of a professor of botany, in Colum¬ bia College to which they request the concurrence of this house. The said bill was read the first time, and ordered a second reading.f February 14th, 1806. The bill, entitled, “ An act for the support of a professor of botany, in Co¬ lumbia College was read the second time, and committed to a committee of the whole housed Notwithstanding the favourable sentiments that had been ex- pressed upon this subject, by governor Lewis, at the opening of the session ; and that a bill for the support of the botanic gar¬ den had passed the senate, and in the lower house had been referred to a committee of the whole ; the session ended without any other notice of this subject. I still, however, did not abandon the hope of ultimately ob¬ taining legislative aid, and therefore continued, as before, my exertions to increase the collection of plants which I had begun, and to extend the improvements for their preservation. Accord¬ ingly, in 1806, I obtained from various parts of Europe, as well as from the East and West-Indies, very important additions to my collection of plants, especially of those which are most valu¬ able as articles of medicine. I also erected a second building for their preservation, and laid the foundation of a third, which was completed the following year. In the autumn of the same year, 1806, I published a Catalogue of the plants, both native and exotics, which had been already collected, amounting to nearly 2000 species. The expenses necessary to effect these several objects, it will readily be supposed, were not inconsiderable. I had now erect¬ ed, on the most improved plan, for the preservation of such plants as require protection from the severity of our climate; three large and well constructed houses, exhibiting a front of one hundred and eighty feet, and which experience has shown are well calculated for the purposes for which they were designed. The greater part of the ground was brought to a state of the highest cultivation, and divided into various compart¬ ments, calculated not only for the instruction of the student of * Journal of the Senate, 29th session, p. 41. + Journal of the Assembly, 29th session, p. 102.