i8o 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The number of visitors to tlie gardens during the year amounts 

 to one and a half million, according to newspaper reports. The 

 gates, six in number, are open from noon until dusk. The ad- 

 ministration and care of 

 an establishment of this 

 character near a great 

 center of population re- 

 quire the closest organi- 

 zation and the most scru- 

 pulous attention to detail 

 on the part of the execu- 

 tive. In this matter tradi- 

 tion as well as current 

 testimony speaks of the 

 rigid manner in which 

 the numerous necessary 

 regulations are enforced. 

 The general plan of the 

 grounds is shown in Plate 

 VI. 



When organized chief- 

 ly for research the botanic 

 garden differs in many 

 essential features from 

 the one described above. 

 From this point of view, and with regard to advantages of geo- 

 graphical position and botanical possibilities, the garden at Bui- 

 tenzorg in Java occupies a foremost position. Originally founded 

 by the Government of Holland in 1817, for the purpose of testing 

 the economic value of plants indigenous to the colonies of the 

 East Indies, and for the distribution of seeds, plants, etc., after 

 the customary manner of such institutions, it has widened its 

 scope and developed its facilities until almost all branches of 

 purely scientific and applied botany may be pursued to advan- 

 tage within it. 



The Buitenzorg Garden is situated within a few degrees of the 

 equator, and by reason of the elevated areas included within its 

 different divisions furnishes suitable conditions for the growth 

 in the open air of plants native to latitudes as high as forty or 

 fifty degrees. The luxuriance of the growth of plants in the 

 lower tropical area may be imagined when it is stated that the 

 average temperature is 85 Fahrenheit, and the yearly rainfall 

 amounts to twelve feet. Of the eleven hundred acres available 

 for the purposes of the garden, an area of about one hundred 

 and seventy-three acres is devoted to experiments with cultivated 

 plants, one hundred and forty-eight to the botanic garden proper. 



Plan of Kew Gardens. Explanatory references: 

 A, principul entrance from Kew Green ; B, tropical 

 house ; 0, timber Museum No. 3 ; D, water-lily 

 house; E, palm house; F, temperate house; G, 

 pagoda ; H, Lion or Kichmoncl Gate ; I, " North " 

 fjallery; J, lake; K, flajjstafl"; L, Unicorn Gate 

 (closed) ; M, Museum No. 1 ; N, Cumberland Gate ; 

 0, rockery ; P, Museum No. 2 ; Q, new range ; 

 R, succulent house, greenhouse, and ferneries ; S, 

 Brentford Gate ; T, Ilesworth Gate ; U, Victoria 

 Gate, for Kew Gardens Station ; V, bamboo gar- 

 den; W, azalea beds; X, Rhododendron Dell; 

 Y, ornamental water; Z, Kew Church. 



