BOTANIC GARDENS WHAT ROLE TODAY? 



541 



to recognize any of the plants commonly used in ornamental horticulture. For 

 this reason alone, if for no other, I think we might well take a discerning look 

 at the present emphasis in botany courses, textbooks included (particularly if 

 we want to discover reasons for declining enrollment in botany courses). 



Broadly, I suppose, the study of botany comes down to "plants in the 

 laboratory," "plants in the wild," and "plants under cultivation." In the 

 first category, to which highest priority is generally given, the greatest em- 



100 



BOTANIC GARDENS 



AND 



ARBORETUMS 



1800 1810 



1950 



Fig. 4. Botanic gardens. About 100 botanic gardens and arboretums were estab- 

 lished in the United States and Canada before 1950. It appears that in this sphere of 

 American culture we are 100 years behind the development of the public library 

 system. Needed: greater imagination on the part of those trained in botany and 

 horticulture plus foundation and municipal support to start new gardens. {Data 

 from Arboretum and Botanical Gardens of North America, by Donald Wyman. 

 103 pp. Chronica Botanica, Vol. 10, No. 5/6, 1947.) 



phasis is on theoretical botany, that is, laboratory science planned essentially 

 for pre-professionals. This emphasis, perhaps desirable for the relatively few 

 who are to become professional botanists, offers little to the many students 

 who will be amateurs all their lives. The second category, plants in the wild, 

 does offer something for the amateur. Here the ecological view creeps in, and 

 many more amateurs are sparked with lifetime interest. Yet even this 

 approach has distinct limitations. A friend tells of her experiences studying 

 the ecology of the county where her college was located. The plants were all 

 wild species of that region; almost none of these grew where she was later 

 to make her home, a thousand or more miles away. Had there been courses 

 emphasizing the more or less universal plants of "ornamental horticulture" 

 she would have acquired useful knowledge that could have given pleasure all 

 her life. This explains the importance of the third category — plants under 



