402 A TROPICAL BOTANIC GARDEN. 



Sumatra camphor trees, while there is besides a coDsiderable number 

 of plants to be distributed during the next rainj' season. Why was it 

 that a short time after their qualities became known, the garden of agri- 

 culture possessed new cacao trees from Nicaragua, rubber trees, forage 

 plants, and new varieties of coffee plants from Brazil, oleiferous plants, 

 plants for cooking and useful trees from Gaboon, rubber climbers from 

 Zanzibar, etc.? It was only because, having the great botanic garden 

 to depend upon, it could otter its correspondents in exchange many a 

 plant interesting to botany or horticulture. The researches hitherto 

 made at Buitenzorg upon the pathology and physiology of plants of 

 general culture have been but few in number, and besides the^' have 

 been more or less against the interests of the garden, an additional 

 proof of what has just been stated. As soon as the two new function- 

 aries, the botanist and the chemist, especially ai)i)ointed for these 

 researches shall arrive,' the scientific force of the garden at Buitenzorg 

 will be sufficiently numerous and varied to answer every need. On the 

 one hand it will be impossible to lower the general scientific tone; on 

 the other, patient and careful researches will give to agriculture a solid 

 basis by which it will not fail to profit. The trunk will preserve the 

 necessary sap for the food of the branches on which practical aims will 

 have been grafted. That which will be accomplished in a little time for 

 agriculture, took place a year ago for pharmacology and toxicology. 

 Although the skillful i)harmacal chemist who is the chief of this new 

 division has only commenced his researches, the results obtained up to 

 the present time furnish conclusive proofs both of the utility of the 

 measure undertaken by the colonial government and of the necessity of 

 attaching this laboratory to a great botanic garden. 



At the time of the founding of the Jlortus Bogoriennis the great 

 utility which it would finally be to the colony was perceived, but this 

 was not the chief motive for its creation. When the government of 

 Holland sent Heinwardt to the Dutch East Indies it was, as expressly 

 stated by the sovereign, '' for the purpose of obtaining as thorough a 

 knowledge of our colonies as our neighbors possess of theirs." It was 

 the intention of the king to contribute, by encouraging scientific explo- 

 ration in the colonies, toward "rendering manifest the happy rehabili- 

 tation of the Dutch name. The result of generous and elevated ideas, 

 it is the duty of the garden of Buitenzorg never to forget its origin. 

 To continue an emulation with the neighboring colonies, to aid in mak- 

 ing known every possible aspect of the exuberant vegetation of the 

 tropics, to contribute to the advancement of science independent of any 

 direct utility, is really to render service to the colony, and in a way 

 which, in the long run, is (piite as efficacious as that which looks only 

 towards direct practical interest. The more civilization advances the 

 more it is demanded of nations which possess great kingdoms in far- 

 away countries blessed by heaven that they should not forget that roy- 

 alty has its respojisibilities and that it can not be allowed to withdraw 



