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The world was searched for new and rare plants, which were brought 
home to Europe for cultivation, and many sumptuous volumes, 
describing and delineating them, were published, mainly through 
the same patronage. The older gardens were essentially private 
institutions, but as the rights of the people became more and 
more recognized, many existing establishments and an increasing 
number of newly founded ones became, to a greater or less ex- 
tent, open to the public, either through an admittance fee or with- 
out charge. The four main elements of the modern botanical 
garden have thus been brought into it successively : 
1. The utilitarian or economic. 
2. The aesthetic. 
3. The scientific or biologic. 
4. The philanthropic. 
These four elements have been given different degrees of 
prominence, depending mainly upon local conditions, some 
gardens being essentially aesthetic, some mainly scientific, while 
in our public parks we find the philanthropic function as the un- 
derlying feature, usually accompanied by more or less of the 
aesthetic and scientific. 
The Economic Element-—In the broadest extension of this de- 
partment of a botanical garden there might be included, to advan- 
tage, facilities for the display and investigation of all plants 
and their products directly or indirectly useful to man. This con- 
ception would include forestry, pharmacognosy, agriculture, 
pomology, pathology and organic chemistry, and in case the 
management regards bacteria as plants, bacteriology. 
The display of the plants may be effected by growing such of 
them as will exist without protection in the locality in a plot, 
more or less individualized, commonly known as the Economic 
Garden, while those too tender for cultivation’ in the open are 
grown in the greenhouses, either in a separate house or section, 
or scattered through the several houses or sections, in the tempet- 
atures best adapted to their growth. The display of plant prod- 
ucts, best accompanied by mounted specimens of the species 
yielding them, by photographs and by plates, is accomplished by 
the Economic Museum, where these are arranged in glass oF 
glass-fronted cases, suitably classified and labeled. It is believed _ 
