76 



SYSTEMATIC BOTANY 



world, to an herbarium, where man that, through the use of medicinal 

 must turn. Only here will he find the plants the sick may be healed; through 

 sometimes divergent viewpoints of the agriculture the hungry may be fed and 

 cytologist, the morphologist, the ecol- the naked clothed; through forestry, 

 ogist, and the physiologist brought to- man's lot may be made easier in a 

 gcther, integrated, rationalized and or- multitude of ways; through floriculture, 

 ganized around the concept of discrete beauty may be brought into his life; 

 nomenclatural units— things with and, if for no other reason, that man- 

 names. Thus, having a name for things, kind himself— through the knowledge 

 through words, man is better able to of so important a part of his environ- 

 communicate this information, this ment— may continue to exist, 

 knowledge, to others of his kind so 



QUESTIONS 



1, Which practice is more desirable in a 

 herbarium, (a) cluttering up the files 

 with duplicate specimens or (b) hav- 

 ing one good representative specimen 

 on hand? 



2. What relationship exists between the 



careful examination of a large group 

 of specimens of the same species and 

 evolution? 



What t\'pes of inquiry are likely to be 

 made of a taxonomist? Mention a few. 



R. J. Seibert 



Arboreta and Botanical Gardens in the 

 Field of Plant Science and Human Welfare 



Reprinted with the permission of the author 

 and pubhsher from American Journal of 

 Botany 43(9): 736-738, 1956. 



The botanic gardens and arbore- have been over-shadowed by a host of 



tums are a natural meeting ground for circumstances in recent years. Plant sci- 



science, histor\% art and culture in gen- ence research in certain specific fields 



eral; yet their basic importance to the has been of a nature which demands 



broad field of plant sciences seems to that the scientist know more and more 



