US Botanic Garden Snapshot
While the US Capitol may be home to a collection of garden-variety politicians, its neighboring United States Botanic Garden houses a collection of extraordinary specimens of an altogether different kind. Located on the Nation's Mall, the Botanic Garden consists of a Conservatory and Bartholdi Park (named for Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, sculptor of the historic fountain located at its center). The Garden maintains about 26,000 plants -- including economic and medicinal plants, orchids, cacti and succulents, bromeliads, cycads, and ferns -- used for exhibition, study, and exchange with other institutions. The Park was created in 1932, the Conservatory, in 1933.