 Brown cited his role in the Botanical Garden's founding as his most significant public service, aside from his work in the judiciary.He wrote that organization's charter in 1891 and in that year donated the initial $25,000 (which he viewed as "quite out of proportion to my means at that time") toward the $250,000 in private seed money required pursuant to the New York legislature's authorization for municipal contributions.Brown traveled to collect botanical specimens, maintained an extensive botanical library, wrote many notes for Torrey Botanical Club publications and published the following works