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The Botanic Garden of Smith College

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Protected areas of Hampshire County, MassachusettsSmith College
Smith botanic garden greenhouse
Smith botanic garden greenhouse

The Botanic Garden of Smith College is located on the campus of Smith College, in Northampton, Massachusetts, United States. It consists of a fine selection of woody trees, shrubs, herbaceous plants, and an excellent collection of tropical and subtropical plants in The Lyman Conservatory (greenhouses in the Lyman Plant House). All are open to the public. The first outlines of the Botanic Garden began in the 1880s, when Smith College hired the firm of Olmsted, Olmsted and Eliot to develop a campus landscape plan. Frederick Law Olmsted, senior member of the firm, is best remembered for designing Central Park in New York City and the Boston park system. The Olmsted plan dated February 1893 includes curving drives and walkways, open spaces with specimen trees, and vistas over Paradise Pond through wooded groves. Olmsted also provided planting lists of diverse trees, shrubs, herbs, and aquatic and marsh plants. However, in a more formal sense, the Botanic Garden of Smith College took shape under William Francis Ganong, appointed professor of botany and director of the Botanic Garden in May 1894, and Edward J. Canning, hired in summer 1894 as head gardener. Smith's Botanic Garden collection includes 1200 types of woody trees and shrubs, 2200 types of hardy herbaceous plants, 3200 types of tender herbaceous and woody plants in greenhouses, and 6600 different kinds of plants, giving a total of approximately 10,000 types of plants on campus. The Lyman Conservatory's greenhouses with 12,000 square feet (1,100 m2) date from 1895, and house over 2500 species of plants for the instruction of Smith students in the plant sciences. These plants are selected from a wide variety of families and habitats; they comprise one of the best collections of tropical, subtropical, and desert plants in the country. The campus arboretum consists of 127 acres (51 ha) of woody trees and shrubs, and is free and open every day. Other Smith Campus Gardens include the Rock Garden, Japanese Garden, Happy Chace '28 Garden, Capen Garden, Woodland Garden, and Systematics Garden & Perennial Border.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article The Botanic Garden of Smith College (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

The Botanic Garden of Smith College
College Lane, Northampton

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N 42.3189 ° E -72.6401 °
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Lyman Plant House

College Lane 16
01063 Northampton
Massachusetts, United States
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Smith botanic garden greenhouse
Smith botanic garden greenhouse
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Smith College

Smith College is a private liberal arts women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith and opened in 1875. It is the largest member of the historic Seven Sisters colleges, a group of women's colleges in the Northeastern United States. Smith is also a member of the Five College Consortium, along with four other nearby institutions in the Pioneer Valley: Mount Holyoke College, Amherst College, Hampshire College, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst; students of each college are allowed to attend classes at any other member institution. On campus are Smith's Museum of Art and Botanic Garden, the latter designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. Smith has 41 academic departments and programs and is structured around an open curriculum, lacking course requirements and scheduled final exams. Undergraduate admissions is exclusively restricted to women, although Smith announced a trans-inclusive admissions policy in 2015. Smith offers several graduate degrees, all of which accept applicants regardless of gender, and co-administers programs alongside other Five College Consortium members. The college was the first historically women's college to offer an undergraduate engineering degree. Admissions is considered selective. It was the first women's college to join the NCAA, and its sports teams are known as the Pioneers. Smith alumnae include notable authors, journalists, activists, feminists, politicians, philanthropists, actresses, filmmakers, academics, businesswomen, CEOs, two First Ladies of the United States, and recipients of the Pulitzer Prize, Rhodes Scholarship, Academy Award, Emmy Award, MacArthur Grant, Peabody Award, and Tony Award.