380 
equipped to carry out the work which belongs to such an institution. 
‘At has been said that the idea of establishing a National University 
in Groote Schuur is favourably entertained by the Government. If 
this be so, what could be more appropriate than that these two 
national institutions, designed to raise the standard of culture and 
to contribute to the material prosperity of the South African nation, 
should both be overlooked by the Rhodes Memorial? The direct 
or indirect association of University and Botanic Garden is nothing 
new: it has endured for centuries in many European centres of 
learning. As an aid to education—not merely the acquisition of 
botanical knowledge—the Botanic Garden is an invaluable asset, to 
a University and, on the other hand, the staff of a University 
Botanical Department can contribute pis ot to the research 
work carried on in the Botanic Gard «ete 
After dealing with some aspects of athe faidnstial questions which 
the realisation of the proposal would involve, Professor Pearson 
concludes his sedihin in the following words :—* The economic 
value of a State Department of Botany organised upon a scientific 
basis and provided with adequate equipment has been abundantly 
proved in all other important parts of the Empire, tropical, ges 
i Sain and temperate. What is probably the most efficien 
Botanic Garden at present existing is asada by the Dutch in 
Java; and perhaps the most beautiful by the Republic of Brazil at Rio 
de Janeiro. The occupation of the Philippines by America has imme- 
maintained, partly or sNaatle for economic purposes, by Egy 
Germany, Portugal and Great Britain, The Sceinatakes bef ts 
of the nations has found no other satisfactory means of doing the 
work for which these gardens are established. If South Africa is 
to proceed upon what, by common consent, are nh soundest and 
most direct lines in increasing, developing and preserving her agri- 
cultural and pastoral resources, she must follow hag example set by 
other nations in the occupation or settlement of new or incompletely 
known regions, 
“Important as the commercial aspect of this question un- 
doubtedly is, South Africa cannot ignore another consideration 
which does not exist in certain of the cases referred to above, 
aspirations of the New Nation whose nee it is to foster the otaly 
of the country which it occupies, to encourage a proper apprecia- 
tion of the | rare and beautiful with which Nature has so lavishly 
endowed i 
