VOICE
ONE:
This is
SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty.
VOICE
TWO:
And
I'm Barbara Klein. This week on our program, we visit the United States Botanic
Garden in Washington, D.C.
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VOICE
ONE:
The
United States Botanic Garden is located on the grounds of the Capitol, the
building where Congress meets. In fact, Congress operates the garden through
the office of the Architect of the Capitol. The Botanic Garden is a museum
alive with four thousand different plants from across America and the world.
Visitors can explore the collection
indoors, in the glass-and-stone building called the Conservatory, and also
outdoors. Next to the Conservatory is the National Garden, which opened in two
thousand six.
VOICE
TWO:
The
National Garden took five years to build. The project cost ten million dollars
and was financed with private donations.
Visitors can enjoy wildflowers and roses
-- the rose is the national flower -- along with beautiful stonework, fountains
and pools. One area of the National Garden presents plants that attract
butterflies. Another has plants native to the mid-Atlantic area.
The
National Garden also includes a square with a fountain based on a complex
geometric design. This area is called the First Ladies Water Garden. It has two
purposes. One is to honor the wives of American presidents and their service to
the country. The other is to recognize the importance of water to life and
civilization.
VOICE
ONE:
Across
the street from the National Garden and the Conservatory is Bartholdi Park. The
park was created in nineteen thirty-two and is also part of the Botanic Garden.
Plants
and garden designs are set around the historic Bartholdi Fountain, sculpted by
Frederic Auguste Bartholdi. He was the French sculptor whose better known works
include the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor.
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VOICE
TWO:
The
historic roots of the United States Botanic Garden go back to the eighteen
hundreds. But the garden has been in its present location since nineteen
thirty-three.
We
visit on a hot August day. We decide to ignore the heat and see the open-air
exhibits first. Throughout the Botanic Garden currently is an exhibit called
"One Planet -- Ours!" The exhibit urges people to take better care of
Earth's resources and to improve the environment.
Global
warming is the subject of a collection of artwork in the National Garden. There
are sculptures of Earth called "Cool Globes." One of the globes is by a
twelve-year-old girl, Emily Abrams, who wanted children to help fight global
warming. She exchanged e-mail with children in twenty-four countries around the
world to get their ideas.
The
result is a richly colored globe called "Listen to Our Children." Emily had
help from, among others, her sister and brothers and from artist Michelle Korte
Leccia.
Paintings
by children from Tortuguero, Costa Rica, cover the oceans on the globe. The
children painted on handmade paper made of banana leaves. Their suggestion for
fighting global warming is to protect the rainforests.
VOICE
ONE:
Another of the globes in the National
Garden is called "Unplugged Fun." It was made by students and teachers at the
Francis W. Parker School in Chicago, Illinois. Children ages four to eighteen
suggested play activities that do not require any electric power. One picture
shows children on park swings. In another picture, a person rows a boat on a
bright blue sea.
A
nonprofit organization called Cool Globes created the exhibit at the Botanic
Garden. The exhibit continues through October thirteenth.
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VOICE TWO:
As we
pass through the National Garden, we see switchgrass. The plants are standing
tall in the sun. Gardeners plant switchgrass for its stately appearance.
Farmers use it to separate crops and to hold soil in place. And now, some
energy experts think switchgrass could serve another purpose, as an important
resource for fuel.
Next,
we walk over to the First Ladies Water Garden and see a memorial exhibit for
Lady Bird Johnson. She was the wife of Lyndon Johnson, America's thirty-sixth
president.
Lady Bird Johnson beautified the White
House gardens and other gardens and parks. She also campaigned for a law called
the Beautification Act of Nineteen Sixty-Five. That law resulted in more
wildflowers and fewer big advertising signs along the nation's highways.
VOICE
ONE:
Lady Bird Johnson died last year at age
ninety-four. At the age of seventy, she established a wildflower research
center. That center is now part of the University of Texas at Austin, which
created the exhibit honoring her at the National Garden.
There
are plants from different parts of the country. A magnolia, for example,
represents trees from the Southeast and the Midwest. A Colorado blue spruce
tree and a plant called silver pony foot help represent the Rocky Mountains and
the Southwest.
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VOICE
TWO:
Next,
we enter the Conservatory. The air is cooler inside. We walk past two narrow
pools. Water shoots into the air alongside tall plants and trees.
The building
is divided into rooms. Each room recreates different habitat conditions. The
areas of the Conservatory include medicinal plants, rare and endangered
species, a children's garden, a Hawaiian garden, a jungle and a desert.
In
the Garden Court we find some examples of what experts call "economic
plants." We start getting hungry as we see plants and trees bearing
olives, figs, almonds, plums, tea, coffee and rice.
A
family of five from Costa Rica is resting on a Garden Court bench. The mother
recognizes one of the trees. She tells her children that they have those trees
back home.
VOICE
ONE:
We move
from the relative cool of the Garden Court into the warmth of a jungle.
Sunlight from outside shines on this thick green world. The light comes through
the top of the building. The glass-covered area in the Palm Court is about
twenty-eight meters high. We can climb steps to see the palm trees and other
growth from above. Or we can ride up in an elevator.
From
these heights, we can see rings that circle the bottoms of the royal palms.
Other trees called teddy bear palms have material that looks like brown fur.
And we see trees that look like huge bottles, which we suspect explains their
name: bottle palms.
VOICE
TWO:
An exhibit of plants with healing
qualities attracts a small crowd in the Conservatory. The exhibit presents a
traditional market like those of the KwaZulu-Natal people of South Africa.
The
Plant Exploration House in the Conservatory presents modern relatives of plants
collected long ago by Admiral Charles Wilkes. Wilkes was an explorer. He
traveled around the world between eighteen thirty-eight and eighteen forty-two.
Among the plants in the collection are
birds of paradise. These have yellow and blue flowers that make them look more
like birds than plants.
VOICE
ONE:
Some rare orchids grow among the
hundreds of birds of paradise. The orchids seem to bloom in all colors.
We
meet a young woman from Brazil who is intensely studying the flowers. She says
she hopes to find some local favorites here. Soon enough, she sees an orchid
that grows in southern Brazil.
The
young woman tells us that she is a student of horticulture, the art and science
of growing things.
VOICE
TWO:
The
Botanic Garden offers classes for people who want to learn about growing
things. For example, there were classes this summer about how to grow herbs and
flowers in containers at home.
Other
classes dealt with the environment. A
scientist from NASA, the American space agency, explained how a warming climate
affects the world's water systems.
VOICE
ONE:
The
internationally known horticulturist who heads the Botanic Garden, Holly
Shimizu, describes Earth as humanity's garden. And she says people have a
responsibility to take care of it.
People also have to take care of the
Botanic Garden. But machines can do some of the work. Computers operate the
environmental control system in the Conservatory. They can do things like raise
and lower shade cloth over the windows and control heat and air-handling
equipment. The computers make sure temperatures and humidity levels are just
right in relation to the weather outside.
VOICE
TWO:
The
Conservatory re-opened in December of two thousand one after four years of
work. The building systems were replaced and modernized. But except for a small
addition, the outside of the Conservatory looks much as it did in nineteen
thirty-three.
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VOICE
ONE:
Our program was written by Jerilyn
Watson and produced by Brianna Blake. The United States Botanic Garden offers a
virtual tour at usbg.gov. For a link, go to our Web site,
voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Bob Doughty.
VOICE
TWO:
And
I'm Barbara Klein. Join us again next week for SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA
Special English.