Evening star., 1915-04-05
.STUDENTSBY THOUSANDS
VISIT BOTANIC GARDEN
Twenty Five High School Parties to
Be Shown Wonderful
Plants Today.
Business Men Avail Themselves of
Sunday Opening to Inspect
the Display.

The Botanic Garden was favorite
place of resort for sightseers yester-
| day, and today the conservatories are
swarming with high school girls anC
boys. principally from New York anC
New England states.
According to the official count oi
| those who included the Botanic Garden
in their Easter promenade yesterday
there were 1,555 persons who inspected
the conservatory and twenty-one green
houses.
Many of these were personally con-
Quoted about. and the various exhibits
of freak. food, biblical, economic and
historic plant exhibits were explained
by Supt. George W. Hess, and Wilmer
]. Paget, his assistant
Slams envoy extraordinary and min
lister plenipotentiary. Phya Prabha
karavongse, accompanied by an at
tache of the legation, was an enthu-
siastic guest. He expressed surprise
that so large a quantity and variety of
plants could be crowded into such a
compa ratively small greenhouse space
and at the same time be so arranged
that visitors would get such a good op-
portunity to view the comprehensive
exhibit.
Among the most interested spectators
yesterday was Joe Mitchell Chapple of
Boston, magazine editor, who said he
of the work done by the Botanic Car
den. although in his very frequent
visits to the Capitol he has passed the
conservatories many times.
Students Visit Garden.
More than 1000 students visited the
garden today. From the Westfeld. N. Y.
High School there was a large delega-
tion, under the guidance of the princi-
pal. L. +. Dickson j. r. knowlton
brought more than seventy-fve from
chautauqua. y. y. and George Perkins
led sixty from the Mayville, n. Y, High
Schooi There are now in Washington
twenty-five high school parties from
Maine, Massa chusetts and Vermont. for
which arrangements have been made to
take in" the Botanic Garden today and
tomorrow. Many of these parties are in
charge OF their congressman or their
Many of the business men of Wash
ington have availed themselves of an
opportunity to visit the garden since
supt Hess instituted the practice Of
says that they were surprised to see
the beautiful and rare plants. represent
ing every species of plant life that can
be grown In this climate.
Visit Garden Sunday.
These men and others who are busy
through the week find time Sun
days to visit US now said he. Il
have had many favorable comments
from Washingtonians in regard to the
innovation of Sunday opening 1t has
resulted in interesting people who
have lived in Washington all their
lives and have not paid any attention
to the garden. OF course, it entails
considerable extra work for me and
the men employed here, but I think
the results justify it, and so long as
people seem to appreciate it, 1 don't
mind
Vandalism has been nearly ended,
Mr.. Hess said At first he had some
trouble, but he now guards against it.
Some of the rare plants in bloom
are the nun plant. Hottentot ordeal
poison tree. bird of paradise, fran
cisia latafolia, which has three or four
different colored blossoms ranging
from white to deep violet
Open Each Sunday.
The garden will be open each Sunday
until o'clock, but yesterday on ac-
count of the steady stream Of visitors
it remained open until after 8. In SO
far as the force will allow one Of the
the garden and give a brief descrip-
tion of the rare and odd specimens on
exhibition.