390 A TROPICAL BOTANIC GARDEN. 



The number of botanic gardens situated in the tropical zone is much 

 greater than might be supposed. According to a recent enumeration 

 there are not less than fifteen in the British possessions. In the French 

 colonies they are found at St. Denis in Eeunion Island, at La Point-^- 

 Pitre in Guadeloupe Island, at St. Pierre in Martinique, at Pondicherry, 

 and at Saigon. Spain has one at Havana, and one at Manila ; and Hol- 

 land has a single one at Buitenzorg in the island of Java. There are also 

 tropical botanic gardens in South America, and these bring the total 

 number to a considerable figure. Still it must be admitted that some 

 are not botanic gardens properly so-called, but rather agricultural sta- 

 tions and gardens of acclimation. There are others however, that 

 while not abandoning tropical agriculture, merit the names of great 

 scientific establishments. As the chief of this kind, those of Calcutta, 

 of Buitenzorg in Java, and of Peradeniya in Ceylon (in chronological 

 order) should be cited. 



The royal garden of Calcutta was founded in 178() by Col. Robert 

 Hyde, who was its first director. Among his successors are found the 

 celebrated names of Wallich and Griffith, the greatest naturalist of 

 our century in the extreme East. The garden of Calcutta has now 

 been for several years under the wise and able direction of Dr. G. King, 

 to whose care the herbarium of Calcutta owes its great reputation. 

 The royal garden of Peradeniya in the Island of Ceylon was founded in 

 1821. Situated near Kandy, at an altitude of nearly 500 metres [1,600 

 feet], having a moist and hot climate, occupying more than 60 hectares 

 [150 acresj, and connected as it is with the post of Colombo by a railway, 

 the garden of Peradeniya possesses conditions most favorable in every 

 respect. For many years it was under the direction of Dr. Thwaites, 

 a man of real merit, but who thought a botanic garden in a tropical 

 country should be in some manner a reduced copy of the virgin forest. 

 This system, more original than meritorious, excludes any methodical 

 arrangement of plants and necessarily restricts the number of speci- 

 mens. Dr. H. Trimen, the successor of Dr. Thwaites, as soon as he 

 arrived in Ceylon, 9 years ago, realized the disadvantages of the plan 

 of his predecessor. To distribute orer an area of 00 hectares, without 

 any order, a great number of plants, for the most part not labelled, 

 was to ftitally embarrass the scientific use of the rich collections that 

 had been brought together. So Dr. Trimen did not hesitate to adopt 

 a new arrangement of plants according to the natural system and to 

 label them as far as it was possible to do so. With branch establish- 

 ments upon the plain and upon the mouutain,the garden of Peradeniya 

 has before it a brilliant future. The third of the gardens mentioned, 

 that of Buitenzorg in the island of Java, was founded in 1817. We 

 will briefly relate its history and show by a study of its present organ- 

 ization that a new era is commencing for large tropical gardens, and 

 that their influence will constantly increase in the future evolution of 

 the science of plants. 



