xlii PROCEEDINGS OP THE 



steady climate has facilitated the maintenance of large collections 

 in the open air or with little protection. Continental gardens hare 

 also been long and are still made largely available for the purpose 

 of instruction as well as of scientific experiments, of which the recent 

 labours of Naudin and Deoaisne are an excellent illustration. For 

 these scientific purposes the arrangement in large and small square 

 compartments is peculiarly suitable ; and I confess that I have fre- 

 quently had greater pleasure in witnessing the facilities afforded to 

 zealous students in following up, book in hand, the straight rows of 

 scientifically arranged plants in these formal university gardens 

 than in watching the gay crowds that flock to the more ornamentally 

 laid out public botanic gardens. 



I do not think that generally much advance has been made of 

 late years in Continental botanical gardens. Those that I first 

 visited in 1830 appeared to me to be but little improved when I 

 again went over them in 1869. Some have acquired additional 

 space, others have paid more attention to ornament ; but most of 

 them have remained nearly stationary, and a few have even fallen 

 back. In our own country wc have made great progress. Kew 

 Gardens had, indeed, in former days rendered assistance to the in- 

 vestigations of Eobert Brown and a few other favoured individuals ; 

 but they were the sovereign's private property, and were kept very 

 close, with little encouragement to science at large. But thirty 

 years' unceasing exertions on the part of its distinguished directors, 

 the two Hookers, father and son, have raised them to a point of 

 scientific usefulness far beyond any other establishment of the kind 

 at home or abroad. Of the large sums annually voted for it by 

 Parliament a portion has, indeed, to be applied to mere ornament 

 and to the gratification of visitors ; but yet, with all the drawbacks 

 of our climate, and consequent expenditure in houses, a series of 

 named species, representatives of all parts of the globe, far more 

 numerous than had ever been collected in one spot, are there main- 

 tained, freely exhibited to the public, and submitted to the exami- 

 nation of scientific botanists. 



2. Preserved specimens have the great advantage over living ones 

 that they can be collected in infinitely greater numbers, maintained 

 in juxtaposition, and compared, however distant the times and 

 places at which they had been found; they are often the only 

 materials from which we can obtain a knowledge of the races they 

 represent ; although still consisting of individuals only, they can by 

 their numbers give better ideas of species and other abstract groups 

 than the almost isolated living ones ; and their careful preservation 



