The New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx has a 40-acre forest (yes, a forest in the city!), and plant exhibits that change over the year. You'll find a variety of gardens: rose gardens, rock gardens, iris gardens, as well as a chemurgic garden, with plants grown for chemical, medical and industrial purposes. Best way to get there is by shuttle bus, which charges a small fee. Call 718-817-8700 for the schedule.
It's worth taking a trip in the spring to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden to see the famous cherry blossoms, magnolias, and the Japanese garden. Even in the winter, there's plenty to see: cacti, ferns, and Bonsai in the glass-enclosed conservatory. The 2/3 train gets you there.
Enter Central Park on the footpath at West 81st Street, turn right when
you reach the road. Just past the marionette theater, you'll see the
entrance to the Shakespeare
Garden, with 120 of the plant varieties that are mentioned in
Shakespeare's plays. A quiet place to get inspiration for that Lit Hum
paper or to have a picnic with a friend. There are delphiniums,
columbine, primroses, and of course, rosemary... that's for
remb'rance.
ANIMALS
The Central Park Zoo (5th Avenue & 64th Street) is small enough to see in an hour...provided you can pull yourself away from the polar bear lumbering around the see-through pool, the ant farm with 1000s of leaf-cutting ants laboriously cutting bits of leaves to their nest, and the colony of snow monkeys on an island of their own. Wildlife art is on exhibit in an indoor gallery.
The Bronx Zoo (Wildlife Conservation Society) exhibits 650 animal species on 265 acres of woodland, meadows, ponds and streams. In addition to a large collection of animals, the zoologists and veterinarians there conduct research on animal behavior, conservation genetics, population biology, ecological analysis, wildlife nutrition, and reproduction of endangered species. Wednesday is a good day to go, when admission fees are voluntary.
It's a long ride to Coney Island in Brooklyn, but once there you can
visit the penguins, seals, otters, walruses, sea turtles, sharks and
beluga whales at New York's
Aquarium for Wildlife Conservation . Arrange a behind-the-scenes tour
to learn about research in fish genetics, marine pollution and marine
zoology.
This is a very funny site. Hot AIR
STORES
Evolution Nature Store, 120 Spring Street, Greenwich Village. Fossils, skeletons, butterflies, t-shirts, Venus fly-trap plants, and more.
There's a gift shop just inside the 78th Street entrance of the American Museum of Natural History. Gifts for nature-lovers include t-shirts, scarves, ties, jewelery, mugs, posters, and a wide selection of books for adults and children.
Maxilla & Mandible has more than just jawbones. You'll find insects in amber, antlers, bones, seashells, and dinosaur teeth at this unusual shop on Columbus Avenue near 80th Street.
Star Magic has one store on Amsterdam near 73rd Street, and another in the Village, on Broadway just below 8th Street. Astronomy, earth sciences, and physics are translated into fun gifts in this shop: glow-in-the-dark stars, globes, gems, holograms, kaleidoscopes, puzzles, science kits. Some New Age stuff, too.
Public Television has opened to branches of the Store of Knowledge, one in the World Trade Center, the other at 1091 Third Avenue, near 61st Street. Space, technology, and prehistory.
Science fiction book stores