A TROPICAL BOTANIC GARDEN.* 



BY M. TREtTB. 



A short time ago botanic gardens were arraigned by the rector of 

 one of the largest universities of Europe in a serious discourse. The 

 orator, a celebrated phyto-physiologist, complained that these gardens 

 no longer keep pace with the botanical science of the day. In the 

 middle ages and until the middle of the sixteenth century botanic gar- 

 dens were collections of officinal plants. Since that period they have 

 become truly scientific institutions. Abandoning pure speculation, 

 attention was given to living things themselves, particularly to plants. 

 Patrons and scientists combined their eftbrts to bring from the most 

 distant countries rare or unknown specimens. In the gardens, depos. 

 itories of this wealth, the difficult task was attempted of presenting, 

 on a reduced scale, the entire vegetable world, and of bringing together 

 (as fiir as possible), all existing vascular plants. In spite of the con- 

 stantly increasing number of plants introduced into Europe, this gen- 

 eral plan was for a long time followed, and not until the beginning of 

 the present century, was it felt that the method must be changed. In 

 the first place it should have been recognized that it was impossible to 

 collect in a single garden, however large and well managed, anything 

 like the enormous number of vascular plants distributed on our globe. 

 Besides, (and this is a more serious argument,) the conditions offered to 

 introduce plants in gardens are so far from natural, that exotic culti- 

 vated i)lants cannot be considered as furnishing a proper basis of com- 

 l)arison in scientific researches, as these are at present understood. 

 Too many i)lants in conditions too abnormal is briefly the criticism 

 made by the orator. 



These institutions, attacked from so high a place, have not failed of 

 defenders. Wlule recognizing that part of the criticism is well founded, 

 it is urged that if the object in view was varied somewhat by insisting 

 — more than has heretofore been done — upon the adoption of a common 

 plan, the botanic gardens of Europe would easily avoid the dangers 

 with which they are menaced. It is not necessary that we take any 

 part in this controversy, for the objections — whether well-founded or 

 not — do not apply to botanic gardens of the tropics, as we will endeavor 

 to show in the following pages. 



* Trauslated from the Eevue dea Deux Mondes. January 1, 1890, vol. xcvii, pp. 

 1G2-I8:i. 



38'J 



