398 A TROPICAL BOTANIC GARDEN. 



vation can not but produce results of great practical utility as well as 

 of great scientific interest. 



Two botanical laboratories are placed in the main botanic gardens, 

 behind the range of nurseries. One of these, a large hall 6 metres wide 

 and 20 long, is reserved for foreign scientists who come to pass some 

 time at the Hortus Bogorienns to make investigations and to study the 

 tropical flora in its home. This laboratory is lighted by five windows 

 at each of which there is a work table. Closets placed against the op- 

 posite wall contain the necessary utensils, optical and other apparatus, 

 flasks, vases, etc., and the so-called micro-chemical reagents. Besides, 

 there is a small collection of working books so that investigators need 

 not have to depend upon the main library. It is also proposed to facil- 

 itate the researches of visitors, by placing in the hall a herbarium con- 

 sisting entirely of specimens of plants cultivated in the garden, so that 

 in cases of doubt the rapid identification of any such plant may be made 

 without having recourse to the herbarium of the museum. This special 

 laboratory herbarium is at present only begun. The arrangement of 

 the hall is simple, offering at once the advantages of good light and 

 plenty of room. This last point is an essential thing in hot countries, 

 where open space is necessary, especially in a laboratory for research. 

 Even at Buitenzorg, where the evenings, nights, and mornings are 

 fresh, the mean temperature in the middle of the day is from 28° to 29^ 

 C. [82° to 84° F.]. There are even days during the dry season when 

 for 2 or 3 hours in the latter part of the day the mercury rises to 31° 

 C. [880F.]. 



The second botanical laboratory, about 100 paces distant, backed up 

 against the office of the garden and communicating with it, is reserved 

 for the director and the new functionary, the botanist who is expected 

 from Europe. 



The fourth laboratory, that of agricultural chemistry will shortly be 

 established in the garden of agriculture. In the near vicinity of the 

 botanical laboratory are the offices and a small photographic and litho- 

 graphic workshop for the draftsman photographer. The offices, formerly 

 badly arranged in two small rooms of the museum, have just been trans- 

 ferred to a special building, given up for that use by the Government, 

 a new proof of the solicitude the government of the Dutch East Indies 

 and of the mother country always feels for the Garden of Buitenzorg. 



II. 



What are the principles of the organization we have just described, 

 and how does it work? What are the advantages peculiar to large 

 botanical gardens in the tropics, and why is there reason to expect 

 them to exercise a great influence over the future development of 

 botany ? Before answering these questions an understanding must be 

 reached on an essential point; that is to say, the different way in which 



