A TROPICAL BOTANIC GARDEN. 395 



gathered during voyages to the remotest parts of the Dutch posses- 

 sions. The government appointed as director Dr. Scheffer, of the Uni- 

 versity of Utrecht, a pupil of Mignel, the author of the Flora of the 

 Dutch East Indies. The new director began his scientific researches 

 as soon as he was installed at Java. A few years later he obtained 

 from the government a subsidy for the publication of a scientific collec- 

 tion entitled Annals of the Bota^iic Garden at Buitenzorg. During the 

 administration of Dr. Scheffer two changes of great importance took 

 place. The collections belonging to the service of the Mines, contained 

 in a large museum opposite the garden , were transferred to Batavia, 

 and the government gave the building to the botanic garden for its 

 herbarium, its collections, and its library. A second, not less impor- 

 tant, was the founding, in 1876, of a garden and school of agriculture. 

 The latter has since been abandoned. The considerable extension given 

 to the garden ought to have implied an increase in the scientific staff. 

 Unfortunately this was not understood, and Dr. Scheffer remained 

 alone up to the time of his death, which took place in 1880, when he 

 was 32 years old. The period since the death of Dr. Scheffer can not 

 be said to belong to the domain of history, and we will therefore con- 

 tent ourselves with casting a rapid glance over the present organiza- 

 tion of the garden. 



The interest attached to the history of any institution depends, above 

 all, upon the importance and extent which that institution presents at 

 the time when it is considered. The reader will judge if that is the 

 case with the establishment of which we are writing. 



The State Botanic Garden at Buitenzorg comprises three different 

 gardens. There is first, the botanic garden proper, in the center of 

 the city, occupying an area of 36 hectares [89 acres], wedged in between 

 the park of the governor-general, a little river, the Tjiliwong, and the 

 postal road. It is traversed throughout its width by a large and tine 

 avenue called the Avenue of the Kanaries, after the native name of 

 the trees that border it, beautiful trunks of Canarium Cammune, attain- 

 ing a height of about 30 metres [LOO feet]. Upon this avenue, which 

 borders a great pond enlivened by a pretty island, carriages and foot- 

 men freely pass. From it roads practicable for carriages, in part open 

 to the public, pass in all directions and form the arteries to which are 

 attached a perfect maze of foot-paths of different sorts. Plants of one 

 family are, as we have said, found together. They form scattered 

 groups, or rather they occupy one or more divisions bounded by the paths. 

 Each division has at one of the angles a list of the genera it contains. 

 Each species is represented by two specimens, one of which carries a 

 label bearing the scientific name, the native name if there is one, and 

 usually stating the products of the i^lant. In consideration of the great 

 number of climbing phints of tropical countries, Teysmann had the 

 liappy idea of putting then together in a special part of the garden, 

 where they also are arranged according to their natural affinities. 



