’ 
377 
economic importance which no one has been less inclined to expect 
than the investigator himself. When the Abbot of Brunn crossed 
different varieties of peas in his monastery garden he and those who 
immediately followed him were so little conscious that his work 
of Mendel’s simple experiments in the early ‘sixties’ are immense, 
and their limits are not yet to be defined. Work on these lines is 
in progress in all parts of the world where there are biologists with 
the means of conducting suitable experiments. In South Africa, so 
far as I am aware, no serious efforts have been made in this direc- 
tion, except in the Transvaal and recently at Robertson, under the 
Departments of Agriculture. But here is a branch of investigation 
whose influence upon industry is incalculable. An important part 
of the work of a National Botanic Garden would be the organisation 
and carrying on of investigations of this character, primarily, of 
course, with a view to South African requirements. In so doing, 
however, it would discharge a wider obligation, for it would bring 
South Africa into line with the rest of the civilised world. 
d to ensure that the 
d out with judgment and 
economy, and that suitable steps are taken to ascertain an 
realise the economic value of the introduced pla <a 
African conditions, a national scientific institution commanding the 
confidence of the Agricultural community 1s required, 
* It has been stated on a former page that the grazing industry 
resents for solution many problems w ch would receive attention 
rom the staff of a Botanic Garden. Space does not allow me to 
deal with these in detail, but I must lay stress upon one of them— 
