30 
at one-half hour before sunset, these hours having been found 
to afford satisfactory accommodation to the public. Between the 
hours of closing and opening the gates are kept locked. 
Labels 
A botanic garden is, in effect, an out-of-doors museum, and 
therefore its aims and treatment must differ greatly from those 
of a public park or a mere pleasure garden. The latter serve 
primarily as centers of recreation, and aim to give pleasure 
through pleasing horticultural and landscape effects. A bot- 
anic garden is fundamentally an educational institution, and 
while of necessity serving some of the purposes of a park, and 
aiming definitely to be as attractive as possible, it has certain 
limitations which would not ordinarily be felt by the landscape 
architect, or in purely horticultural operations. For example, 
in a botanic garden, plants cannot always be massed on the 
basis of color effects, but must be grouped in accordance with 
their botanical relationships. This often necessitates a certain 
amount of disregard for stature, color, and time of flowering. 
Again, while some of the planting may serve purely horticultural 
ends, much of it must be planned primarily with reference to 
educational purposes, to convey information about the various 
phases of plant life. These collections must be labeled, and to 
do this so that the labels will not be more conspicuous than the 
plants themselves, or detract from the good appearance of the 
beds, is not an easy matter. After considerable experimenting, 
with the assistance of Mr. W. M. Sargent, a local sign writer, 
we have finally arrived at a fairly satisfactory type of label for 
the beds and the individual plants. Still there is much to be 
desired in the way of finish and durability, and we are now 
investigating various materials and methods with this end in 
view. 
In addition to bed and plant labels, such as are commonly. 
used in botanic gardens, larger labels have been prepared, con- 
taining as many as three or four concise paragraphs of reading 
matter, and, for want of a better name, called “blanket labels.” 
Each of these labels gives information about an exhibit as a 
whole. ‘Thus we have one for the native wild flower garden 
(Local Flora Section), containing a map of the range, and gen- 
