400 A TROPICAL BOTANIC GARDEN. 



placed upon applied science. This is a contradiction at once apparent, 

 and which becomes still more obvious if we pass from the general case 

 to the special one of botany, which is of the first importance, because 

 of the great influence it has upon tropical agriculture. The time has 

 passed, and we should be glad of it, when the high price of colonial prod- 

 ucts, the want of co-operation, excessively cheai) labor, and sometimes 

 also oppression of the nativ^e population, made all special knowledge 

 superfluous to anyone who chose to take the chance of making his for- 

 tune in agriculture. We are already far from the period when the 

 grossest empiricism was usually sufficient, permit ting the ac(]uirement 

 of wealth by those destitute of education and often even of intelligence. 



To insure solid results, tropical agriculture — no lessthan that of tem- 

 perate countries — demands judgment and special knowledge, and the 

 need is felt of establishing it also on a firm scientific basis. It has it 

 is true been said, adopting a practical view of the verj' narrowest kind, 

 that the contradiction we have just pointed out, did not necessarily exist, 

 since it was only necessary to take for a scientific basis the results of 

 the researches of European scientists, only that the application will be 

 somewhat ditierent in the tropics. This is a very grave error, especially 

 since it relates to the phenomena of life. It is vain for us to compare as 

 to their eff"ects upon vegetation, the dry season with winter, and the 

 rainy season with spring and summer. The forms and functions iu 

 which vegetable life manifests itself in an equatorial country are quite 

 diflerent from those in the temperate zone. The essential laws which 

 rule life are the same, but the manifestations of it are quite different. 

 It is therefore for the immediate interest of tropical colonies to possess 

 scientific establishments for the study of life in its forms and in its 

 functions. As institutions of this kind depending upon universities or 

 faculties do not exist, it is evident that botanic gardens established by 

 the state are indispensable. These gardens serve a double purpose, 

 scientific and practical, but it should not be forgotten that it is in science 

 only that they must have their root. The scientific institution forms 

 the trunk on which the branches are grafted. If the trunk is hampered 

 ever so little in its growth and loses its vigor, the branches will cer- 

 tainly suffer, and in the end may perish. Thus everything which lowers 

 the scientific tone of a tropical botanic garden is contrary not only to 

 the advancement of science, but also to the direct interests of the colony. 



It is ueccessary to insist upon this truth because there is always 

 among agriculturists a tendency to confound a botanic garden with an 

 agricultural station or with an experimental garden. This error is ex- 

 cusable in persons who not understanding the festina lente of science, 

 are contiiuially wishing immediate answers to questions of vegetable 

 pathology and physiology which they ask in the interests of the special 

 culture in w'hich they are engaged. This want of patience and compre- 

 hension of the modus operandi in scientific investigations is the princi- 

 pal reason why agricultural stations founded by agriculturists them- 



