The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1916-06-16
- OR several years congress has
been urged to give a new lease
of life to one of the most in

" OR several years congress has
% been urged to give a new lease
of life to one of the most in
teresting institutions in Wash
ington-the National Botanic Garden
by removing it to a 4G0-acre tract
in Rock Greek park. One need only
| walk through the garden to appreci-
| ate the need for such a change.
The giant palms in the conserva-
tories are crowding the panes of glass
out Of the roofs Of the buildings in
which they are housed. Rare trees and
plants encroach upon one another,
pushing and struggling in their fights
for life and~beaUty. EXotics that have
been coaXed to fruit and flower in
their perfection in past years are
being persuaded to do so now, under
present conditions Of congestion, only
by the hardest kind of labor on the
| part of the gardeners.
In this beautiful garden, started by
| George Washington. one meets people
from all over the United States, says
| the Washington Star. A mecca for
| pies and other tourists, as we'll as men
| and women of purely scientific turn
| of mind, each season that passes gives
| 1t some new attraction, each year adds
to it's collections.
Recently the garden has been par
| ticularly enriched by the successful
| growth and fruiting of the Carica pa
paya, under the loving care Of the
superintendent, George w Hess. This
papaya is something like the papaw
| of the middle West, and is also known
| as the melon papaw. It is, however, a
tropical fruit, known in tropical coun-
| tries as the melon zapote 1t comes
| from Mexico and Central America,
| and the two young trees in the bo-
tanic garden bear witness to the fact
that the present occasion is the first
time the fruit has been produced in
| Washington.
superintendent Hess explained how
he happened to be able to produce the
fruit here.
These zapote trees he said, were
mated by me. They have been in the
botanic garden, I suppose, about four
| teen or fifteen years, in separate
| places, but l found out that they
were male and female of the species,
and put them together, and they pol
linated, with the result that they fruit
ed for the first time
Too Crowded to Be Seen.
Here is a garden, an exhibition Of
great scientific, educational and ro-
mantle interest-to say nothing of the
bits of history entwined about many
of it's trees and plants-wbich is so
filled with rare specimens that the
average visitor cannot see them be-
cause OF the way one is hidden by the
| other. Among the most beautiful Gre
ations of nature, the poor stunted
| trees and plants reach out toward the
| skies for their place in the sun,
| their share OF the air, that they may
| thrive and silently teach the lesson
of the beautiful.
Here is 10 be found, really living
and growing. cedar of Lebanon, such
as is spoken OF in the Bible, growing
| ana (nriFlng OniH on Ole sue pSCd use
it is crowded too much on the other.
Here also is to be found the euphorbia
splendens, the crown Of thorns,' also
mentioned in the Bible. From the
"sawdust' of the former is made the
incense used in Greek and Roman
Catholic churches. highly pleasing to
the olfactory nerves. From the latter
comes milky sap said to be poison
Gus. 1t obtains its name from its
principal characteristics, which are
thorns and growth in circles.
The botanic garden is rich in rare
| foreign plants. Thousands of natural
| ized foreigners, as well as school
teachers. their pupils and scientists
Interested in arborculture, botany and
| the other branches of plant and tree
life, constantly visit the garden to see
| these specimens.
The myrtus communis OF southern
Europe has recently been the cause OF
many trips TO the garden by jewish
|