New York Botanical Garden in the context of "Nathaniel Lord Britton"

The Bronx (/brɒŋks/ BRONKS) is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York. The borough shares a land border with Westchester County, New York to its north; to its south and west, the New York City borough of Manhattan lies across the Harlem River; and to its south and east is the borough of Queens, across the East River. The Bronx, the only New York City borough located primarily on the U.S. mainland, has a land area of 42 square miles (109 km) and a population of 1,472,654 at the 2020 census. It has the fourth-largest area, fourth-highest population, and third-highest population density of the boroughs.

The Bronx is divided by the Bronx River into a hillier section in the west, and a flatter eastern section. East and west street names are divided by Jerome Avenue. The West Bronx was annexed to New York City in 1874, and the areas east of the Bronx River in 1895. Bronx County was separated from New York County (modern-day Manhattan) in 1914. About a quarter of the Bronx's area is open space, including Woodlawn Cemetery, Van Cortlandt Park, Pelham Bay Park, the New York Botanical Garden, and the Bronx Zoo in the borough's north and center. The Thain Family Forest at the New York Botanical Garden is thousands of years old and is New York City's largest remaining tract of the original forest that once covered the city. These open spaces are primarily on land reserved in the late 19th century as urban development progressed north and east from Manhattan. The Bronx is also home to Yankee Stadium of Major League Baseball.

The Thain Family Forest is a 50-acre (20 ha) section of old-growth forest along the Bronx River in the New York Botanical Garden, for a time known as the Native Forest and historically as the Hemlock Grove. Its heritage dates in part to pre-colonial Lenapehoking. New York City acquired 4,000 acres (~1620 ha) as parkland in 1888, and in 1895 the New York Botanical Garden site was chosen here primarily due to the presence of the forest, which covers about one-fifth of the garden grounds. Founding director Nathaniel Lord Britton described the site as "the most precious natural possession of the city of New York". The canopy is in various zones such as oak, hemlock, beech, sweet gum and mixed. The eastern hemlock, the forest's original namesake, declined in the early 20th century, due to the hemlock woolly adelgid and the elongate hemlock scale. Its 2011 redevelopment was supported by John Thain and Carmen Thain, and included the removal of non-native species as well as the expansion of native ones. Several walking trails traverse the forest. Appointed in 2021, Eliot Nagele serves as the director of the Thain Family Forest.

Bronx Park is a public park along the Bronx River, in the Bronx, New York City. The park is bounded by Southern Boulevard to the southwest, Webster Avenue to the northwest, Gun Hill Road to the north, Bronx Park East to the east, and East 180th Street to the south. With an area of 718 acres (2.91 km), Bronx Park is the eighth-largest park in New York City.

Founded in the late 1880s, Bronx Park is the location of the New York Botanical Garden and the Bronx Zoo, which respectively occupy much of the northern and southern portions of the park. Fordham Road runs east–west between the zoo and botanical garden, bisecting Bronx Park, while the Bronx River Parkway runs north–south near the eastern edge. The park is operated by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.

The Enid A. Haupt Conservatory is a greenhouse at the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) in the Bronx, New York, United States. The conservatory was designed by Lord & Burnham Co. in the Italian Renaissance style. Its major design features are inspired by the Palm House at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, and Joseph Paxton's Crystal Palace.

Groundbreaking took place on January 3, 1899, and construction was completed in 1902 at a cost of $177,000. The building was constructed by John R. Sheehan under contract for the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. Since the original construction, major renovations took place in 1935, 1950, 1978, and 1993. By the 1970s, the building was in a state of extreme disrepair and had to be either substantially rebuilt or torn down. Enid Annenberg Haupt saved the conservatory from demolition with a $5 million contribution for renovation and a $5 million endowment for maintenance of the building. A subsequent renovation, which started in 1978, restored the conservatory closer to its original design, which had been compromised during the 1935 and 1950 renovations. Due to her contributions, the Conservatory was named the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory in 1978.

The LuEsther T. Mertz Library is located at the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) in the Bronx, New York City. Founded in 1899 and renamed in the 1990s for LuEsther Mertz, it is the United States' largest botanical research library, and the first library whose collection focused exclusively on botany.

The library contains large collections of books relating to botany and horticulture, and are used for studies in fields such as history, anthropology, landscape and building design, architectural history, ethnobotany, economic botany, urban social history, and environmental policy. Its holdings include current scholarly books and serials, as well as many rare and historically important works.

The Index Herbariorum provides a global directory of herbaria (singular, herbarium; plural, herbaria) and their associated staff. This searchable online index allows scientists rapid access to data related to 3,400 locations where a total of 350 million botanical specimens are permanently housed. The Index Herbariorum has its own staff and website. Over time, six editions of the Index were published from 1952 to 1974. The Index became available on-line in 1997.

The index was originally published by the International Association for Plant Taxonomy, which sponsored the first six editions (1952–1974); subsequently the New York Botanical Garden took over the responsibility for the index. The Index provides the supporting institution's name (often a university, botanical garden, or not-for-profit organization), its city and state, and each herbarium's acronym, along with contact information for staff members and their research specialties, and the important holdings of each herbarium's collection.