PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. SECTION C. " 49 



the direction of experimental work would not be difficult to 

 bring about. 



One of the gardens suggested in the list must be the centre 

 of administration and of the scientific work. As integral parts 

 of it, there will be : (i) A National Herbarium and Botanical 

 Library; (2) a Museum of Economic Botany; (3) Research 

 Laboratories; (4) Administrative Offices. So much centralisa- 

 tion is absolutely necessary both for administrative and scien- 

 tific reasons. A good deal of the scientific work will, of course, 

 be done in the field or at one or other of the smaller experi- 

 mental gardens, but unless the whole system is to be paralysed 

 by incomplete equipment and a diffuseness of purpose which 

 take away all hope of efficiency, there must be for all purposes 

 a common base of operations. As to the Garden itself, it 

 will naturally be larger than any of the others and its functions 

 more comprehensive. In the first place, it will become a 

 school of South African Horticulture — a school in a twofold 

 sense. South Africa has not yet evolved a South African 

 Garden. The National Garden will seek to justify its title; 

 it will gradually discover what can be done with the forms 

 which Nature has so bountifully bestowed upon South Africa, 

 and which have hitherto been so pointedly neglected in the 

 country of their origin. It will teach those who visit it to 

 know their own, and it will become a pleasing object-lesson 

 of the great truth which South Africa has not yet finished learn- 

 ing — that tlie true springs of her development are within, 

 not oversea. It will also be a school of South African garden- 

 ing of another kind, for it will train South African gardeners 

 under South African conditions. I anticipate the objection that 

 South Africa has already as many gardeners as it requires. 

 This is hard to believe so long as it is rather the rule than the 

 exception to see a public building or a fine house set in a 

 neglected, unkempt environment 



" Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous. 

 Wears yet a precious jewel in hi.s head," 



The term " wilderness," which in the language of the garden 

 connotes something beautiful, must here be often used in other 

 senses — to describe the unchecked tangle of exotic bush or the 

 dusty barrack-yard which so frequently surrounds the human 

 habitation or congregation. That the South-East wind and 

 the cost of labour are to an extent accountable for this state of 

 things is no doubt true. But some lack of interest in these 

 matters, as well as a dearth of Avorking gardeners who know 

 their business are, I think, largely responsible. 



And then our central garden will also provide experimental 

 plots for the use of those working in the laboratories; a larger 

 section will be devoted to economic plants, native and foreio-n, 

 where they will be tried before being distributed to the parts of 

 the country in which they are likely to prove of value. The 

 size of this garden must, in the first instance, be determined by 

 various circumstances; it is not just now a question of import- 

 ance, as however small the area it could not all be occupied 

 without delay; and however large, it must be capable of exten- 



