374 
city and to the Corporation as to its curator, Mr. Ridley, whose skill 
in carrying out many recent improvements is deserving of all 
raise. 
a: Mention should also be made of two experiment stations recently 
established in the Transvaal. Skinner’s Court in Pretoria, brought 
into cultivation as a forest nursery in 1902, became a garden for the 
experimental cultivation of economic plants in 1904. A second 
station of the same kind, with 25 acres under cultivation, was 
opened at Springbok Flats in the Waterberg district in 1903. Both 
these are therefore in their infancy, but so far as can be jndged 
from the available published information concerning them, they will 
perform some of the important functions of a Botanic Garden which 
have hitherto received little attention in South Africa.” 
some comments taken from the Kew Bulletin, 1892, pp. 10-14, on 
the occasion of the transfer of the Cape Town garden to the Muni- 
cipality are reproduced. 
Professor Pearson next proceeds to discuss what is meant by a 
Botanic Garden and what would be the 
of far-reaching economic importance. 
“The foundation of all botanical investigation, as well as of all 
embryonic. From our present point of view the truth of these 
which control its existence. This knowledge, full est as it 
would be for the student of plant-geography, also possesses a grea 
practical value. Recent events have shown on h : 
b eve ce more how grea 
1s our readiness to credit wild stories of the discovery of untold 
