5 THE IMPORTANCE OF PLANTS 



and watch them grow is a most satis- profession and have conducted courses 

 fying thing, and fondness for such ac- of instruction in tlieory and practice. In 

 tivit^• often comes back to a man after this country few institutions have as 

 he runs the round of pleasure and busi- yet concerned themselves with this 

 ness. As Henry Ward Beechcr once aspect of education, though in the 

 wrote, ever\' book which interprets the postwar period there is going to be a 

 secret lore of fields and gardens, ever\' considerable need for it. 

 essay that brings us nearer to an under- 

 standing of trees and shrubs and even economic importance of plants 

 weeds is a contribution to the wealth 



and happiness of man. Everyone recognizes the economic 

 A garden gives the possessor fruit, importance of the common field crops, 

 vegetables, and flowers; it also teaches wheat, oats, and corn, of the vegetables 

 patience and philosophy, pacifies and and fruits, and of lumber. Tliese are 

 heals the body and the' mind. This is items in our everyday living. Not every- 

 recognized in the employment of gar- one realizes, however, how many other 

 dening in occupational therapy by hos- products are obtained from plants, 

 pitals and prisons, a practice which has They are the source of linseed oil, 

 been used successfully and is increasing, corn, and coconut oil, turpentine, 

 Tliis was not always so. Oscar Wilde, lacquer, varnish, and resin, coffee, tea, 

 writing of his own experience in an and other beverages, perfumes, flavor- 

 English jail, said: ings, and spices, drugs and insecticides, 



paper, cordage, and clothing, cellulose 



But neither milk-white rose nor red f^^ artificial silk, and a hundred other 



May bloom in prison air ^^^f^j products. The plant-extractives 



The shard, the pebble and the flmt .^^^^^^^ ^j includmg drugs and 



Are what tncv eive us there » . - l ., ,. ■ uu^ 



For flowers ha^•e been known to heal flavorings, probably amounts m the 



A common man's despair. United States to between 100 and 160 



million dollars annually. It took a war. 

 May I add a word of caution. We a war which cut us off from normal 

 need nothing but our senses to enjoy supplies, to make us appreciate how 

 the beauty of flowers, but the deeper much our economy and our comfort 

 satisfaction of knowing them and grow- and convenience depend upon many of 

 ing them requires a breadth of knowl- these plant products from distant 

 edge and experience surprising to the places. Rubber and quinine are two of 

 uninitiated. So long as any man out of the most generally known, but there are 

 employment is considered to be a ca- many others, for example, the sponge of 

 pable gardener, and seed catalogs are the luffa gourd, the insecticide pyre- 

 looked upon as adequate texts, gar- thrum, chicle for chewing gum, the 

 dening is likely to be a series of disap- drug ergot, agar agar, and cork. And 

 pointments which only the persistent yet in spite of the varied materials we 

 will survive. Gardening as a profession now obtain from plants the potential- 

 requires training, practice, and a body itics of the plant world are but partially 

 of special information, as other profes- explored. What might be called eco- 

 sions do, and the amateur, whether in- nomic botany is largely an inheritance 

 dividual or corporate does well to look from our untutored ancestors who ob- 

 to the professional for guidance and tained their information over the cen- 

 for help. The Royal Botanic Gardens turics by trial and error. \'cr\' little sys- 

 at Kew and at Edinburgh as well as tematic effort has been made to explore 

 similar institutions on the continent the plant kingdom with the idea of 

 have long recognized gardening as a exploiting products as yet unknown or 



