PROCEEDINGS OF THE, SUMMER MEETING. 47 



dry times the small plants wilted, while the woody growth, rooting deep- 

 er, absorbed the moisture, and thrived. At present, the sloping banks 

 are devoted almost exclusively to the families containing many woody 

 plants, while the herbs have "slid" down to the low flat land, which most 

 of them seem to like very well. 



In this new state and in this utilitarian age at the oldest Agricultural 

 college in America, we are still occasionally called on to rise and explain 

 the uses of a botanic garden. I am happy to state, however, that this 

 question has never been asked by people who visited the garden. Inquir- 

 ies have frequently been made by visitors from the country, the village, 

 and the city; comments without end havf been overheard, and with 

 scarcely an exception this "novel sort of garden" awakens their interest 

 at once. 



We aim to grow (by no means always successfully) a plat of each spe- 

 cies, two to six feet in diameter, large enough to fill the eye, that the 

 botanist, the artist, the florist, may see how he likes it. Where the piece 

 is rather large there is much less danger of losing the whole than where 

 but little is grown. The farmer can compare some of the newer untried 

 sorts of grasses or other forage plants by the side of his old favorites, or 

 he can see behind a label containing the name some weed pest that has 

 lately found its way into his neighborhood. The bee-keeper looks for the 

 plants and their nam^s where honey is gathered in most abundance. The 

 entomologist learns to look for certain insects on the plants of a certain 

 family or species. At a farmers' institute last winter, no topic attracted 

 greater attention than the mention of a family of mints represented by 

 some fifty or more species in our botanic garden. Several present 

 expressed a determination to pay the garden a visit for the purpose of 

 looking for something new and promising for distillation. They hoped 

 we would extend the list by introductions from other countries. 



Many kinds of pretty wild plants are not well known by people in gen- 

 eral, especially since the woods have been cut away or pastured and the 

 swamps drained and placed under cultivation and frequently burned 

 over. Even along the roadside, in many places, the fences have been 

 removed, and grasses, grains, and potatoes come nearly to the tracks 

 made by the wheels. 



In the vicinity of college or high-school, the herbarium fiend ransacks 

 the wild i)laces for choice j)lants which he removes root and branch in 

 large numbers. Sometimes the roots are removed to supply the eastern 

 market. By these methods the choicer plants are driven further and 

 further over the hills or back into remote swamps and small patches of 

 forest. 



A botanic garden of some extent is now becoming almost a necessity 

 for supplying students of school or college with suitable materials for 

 illustration and study. At this college, where the academic year includes 

 the summer months, a garden is especially valuable. Hefe each student 

 may find suitable plants for the study of fertilization by insects; or a com- 

 parison of the tendrils, the runners, rootstocks, a study of various twining 

 plants or almost anything needed lor a thesis in botany, or for making 

 notes to present to the botany club or natural history society. 



Every little while the amateur or the professional florist has his atten- 

 tion called to the peculiar value of some aquatic vine, shrub, or what he 



