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The arrangement of the areas devoted to systematic planting, 
and the proper labeling of the species grown, are important du- 
ties of the scientific department. The sequence of classes, orders 
and families is usually made to follow some “botanical system.” 
It is highly desirable that this should be a system which indicates 
the natural relations of the families, as understood at the time the 
garden is laid out, and be elastic enough to admit of subsequent 
modification, as more exact information relative to those relation- 
ships is obtained. The weight of present opinion is overwhelm- 
ingly in favor of an arrangement from the more simple to the more 
complex, and this will apply not only to the systematic planta- 
tions, but to the systematic museum and the herbarium. 
The scientific possibilities of a botanical garden are the greater 
if an organic or cooperative relationship exists between it and a 
university, thus affording ready facilities for information on other 
sciences. 
The Philanthropic Element—A botanical garden operates as a 
valuable philanthropic agency, both directly and indirectly. Its 
direct influence lies through its affording an orderly arranged in- 
stitution for the instruction, information and recreation of the 
people, and it is more efficient for these purposes than a park, as 
it is more completely developed and liberally maintained. Its in- 
direct, but equally important, philanthropic operation is through 
the discovery and dissemination of facts concerning plants and 
their products, obtained through the studies of the scientific staff 
and by others using the scientific equipment. 
NuMBER AND DistTRIBUTION OF BOTANICAL GARDENS. 
There are somewhat over 200 institutions denominated botan- 
ical gardens, but only a few of them meet the requirements of 
the foregoing sketch. Some are essentially pleasure parks, with 
the plants more or less labeled; most of them pay some attention 
to taxonomy and morphology ; many to economic botany ; while 
& small number are admirably equipped in all branches of the 
Science. 
I have drawn freely on Prof. Penhallow’s first annual report of 
the Montreal Botanical Garden, published in 1886, for the follow- 
ing approximate statement of the number in different countries: 
