DR. V. MARTIUS UPON PLANT-HOUSES. 71 



VI. — Remarks on the Scientific Objects and Uses of 

 Plant-houses. In a series of letters to Professor 

 Fiirnrohr, editor of the Flora, and inserted in the 

 Volume for 1853. By Professor Von Martins, Director 

 of the Pioyal Botanic Garden at Munich. 



(Translated and abridged from the German by Dr. Wallich, F.R.S.,' 

 Foreign Member of tlie Horticultm-al Society.) 



The author commences thus : — 



I will preface my subject by some remarks on botanic 

 gardens generally. No establishment of this kind can possibly 

 comprise all that is cultivated in similar gardens collectively ; 

 nor would it be desirable, because the area, buildings, &c., would 

 be too extensive for convenience or successful study. What is 

 required is, that the number of plants necessary for purposes of 

 public instruction should always be at hand ; while the actual 

 amount of species must necessarily -vary, and be successive. 

 Widely different is the case as regards public herbariums, which 

 should contain the greatest possible number of species of dried 

 specimens that can be obtained. But a variety of circumstances 

 is constantly affecting botanic gardens, such as the general state 

 of botanical science, the fluctuating taste of the public in favour 

 of this or the other sort of cultivation, the routes of voyages of 

 discovery, and so forth. Some thirty years ago. Pelargoniums 

 and other Cape of Good Hope productions, which are at present 

 rarely seen, were the leading favourites. Mexican, Siberian, 

 Brazilian, and Chilian forms existed in abundance, but ai'e now 

 superseded by others from Xew Holland, Texas, California, 

 Venezuela, &e. Nay, there are species which make their appear- 

 ance only ephemerally, and then disappear again from all gardens. 

 All this should be attended to in the construction of plant-houses, 

 as pointing out how important it is to be prepared for a frequent 

 change of cultivation. A judicious selection must be made among 

 a vast variety of plants ; and I believe I am riglit in asserting 

 that the science and acquirements of the director may be tested 

 by the choice he makes ; that we may judge of him by what is 

 cultivated in a botanic garden, and of the gardener under him by 

 the manner of cultivation. What, then, ought constantly to be 

 found in a plant-house ? Four things are to be kept in view : — 

 1, peculiarity of growth and appearance, or habit; '4, remarkable 

 structures of flower and fruit, and other objects of morphology ; 



