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The Garden was founded in 1891 on part of the grounds of an estate ('Belmont') formerly owned by the tobacco magnate Pierre Lorillard , after a fund-raising campaign that was spurred by Columbia University botanist Nathaniel Lord Britton, who was inspired to emulate the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, near London.
With 48 different gardens and plant collections, many named for famous figures or wealthy benefactors, sightseers could easily spend a day admiring the serene cascade waterfall, wetlands and a 50 acre (200,000 m²) tract of never-harvested oaks, American beeches, cherry, birch, tulip and white ash trees — some more than two centuries old.
Garden highlights include an 1890's-vintage, wrought-iron framed, "crystal-palace style" greenhouse; the Peggy Rockefeller memorial rose garden (originally laid out by Beatrix Farrand in 1916); a Japanese rock garden; a 37 acre (150,000 m²) conifer colllection extensive research facilities including a propagation center, 50,000-volume library, and a herbariumIn Botany, a herbarium is a collection of preserved plants or plant parts, mainly in a dried form. These specimens are often used as the reference material to define a plant taxon; they contain the holotypes for these plants. A herbarium can also be a bui archive of hundreds of thousands of botanical specimens dating back more than a century. At the heart of the Garden are 40 acres (162,000 m²) of virgin woodlands which represent the last stretch of the original forest which covered all of New York City before the arrival of European settlers in the 17th century16th century 17th century 18th century more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 17th century was that century which lasted from 1601- 1700. During this period, the power of England and the United Provinces increased; while that of. The forest itself is split by the Bronx RiverThe Bronx River is a river, approximately 20 mi (32 km) long, in southeast New York in the United States. It rises in the Kensico Reservoir, in Westchester County north of New York City. It flows south past White Plains, then SSW through the northern subu and includes a riverine canyon and rapids, and along its shores sits the landmark Lorillard snuff-grinding mill dating back to the 1840's.