UCLA Botanical Garden started as an academic laboratory in 1929. Mr. George C. Groenewegen, the first garden manager, obtained plant materials largely by donations from the United States Department of Agriculture Plant Introduction Garden at Torrey Pines and other botanical sources. By 1947, our Botanical Garden contained about 1500 species and varieties of plants. In the 1960s, garden director Mildred E. Mathias, who oversaw the garden from 1956 to 1974, helped to develop it into the "university garden" and opened it for public tours.