THE ALUMNI JOURNAL. 



243 



possibilities of treatment will depend 

 largely upon the topographical character 

 of the area selected and the natural vege- 

 tation of the tract. The buildings re- 

 quired are : A fire-proof structure or 

 structures for museum, herbarium, 

 libraries, laboratories and offices ; a glass 

 house with compartments kept at sev- 

 eral diflferent temperatures for exhibi- 

 tion, propagation and experimentation, 

 or several separate glass houses ; and to 

 these will usually be added dwelling 

 houses for some of the officers, a stable 

 and other minor buildings. The char- 

 acter, number and sizes of the buildings 

 generally depend on financial considera- 

 tions. In placing the structures in- 

 tended for the visiting public, considera- 

 tions of convenient access, satisfactory 

 water supply and the distribution of 

 crowds must be borne in mind, in con- 

 nection with the landscape design. The 

 planting should follow, as nearly as pos- 

 sible, a natural treatment, except im- 

 mediately around the larger buildings 

 and at the entrances, where considerable 

 formality is desirable for architectural 

 reasons. It is especially desirable that 

 as much natural treatment as possible 

 should be given to the areas devoted 

 to systematic planting — herbaceous 

 grounds, frutecetum, arboretum. The 

 rectilinear arrangement of plant beds 

 found in most of the older gardens has 

 become abhorrent to landscape lovers, 

 and the sequence of families desired can 

 usually be quite as well obtained by 

 means of curved-margined groups. 



The cultivation of decorative plants, 

 and especially the fostering of a taste for 

 them, and the bringing of unusual or 

 new species to attention and efi"ecting 

 their general introduction, are important 

 functions of a botanical garden. For the 

 accurate determination of these plants, 

 information concerning their habits and 

 structure, and suggestions regarding the 



conditions of their growth, the aesthetic 

 side must rely on the scientific. 



The Scientific or Biologic Elemeyit.— 

 The important relations cf the scientific 

 department to the economic and jesthetic 

 have already been alluded to. The 

 library, herbarium, museums and labora- 

 tories are the sources whence exact infor- 

 mation regarding the name, structure, 

 habits, life-processes and products of 

 plants are derived, and they are the 

 more useful as they are the more com- 

 plete and thoroughly equipped. It is 

 practically impossible for any one library 

 to have all the literature of botany and 

 related sciences ; any one herbarium to 

 possess an authentic and complete repre- 

 sentation of all species of plants, or any 

 one museum to be thoroughly illustra- 

 tive ; absolute perfection along these 

 lines cannot be obtained, but the more 

 closely it is approximated the better the re- 

 sults. The research work of the scientific 

 department should be organized along all 

 lines of botanical inquiry, including tax- 

 onomy, morphology, anatomy, physiol- 

 ogy and paleontology, and the labora- 

 tories should afford ample opportunities 

 and equipment for their successful prose- 

 cution. 



The arrangement of the areas devoted 

 to systematic planting, and the proper 

 labeling of the species grown, are im- 

 portant duties of the scientific depart- 

 ment. 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 modifica- 

 tion, as more exact information relative 

 to those relationships is obtained. The 

 weight of present opinion is overwhelm- 

 ingly in favor of an arrangement from 

 the more simple to the more complex. 



