416 THE GARDEN AND ITS DEVELOPMENT. 



has been assigned to it the culture of phmts requiring protection, this 

 including for Europe all tropical forms without exception. Such 

 plants could not for a long time join the immigration that flooded the 

 Continent. The first specimens, having to endure the hardships of a 

 long sea voyage, reached Europe only by chance. The Emperor of 

 Austria was the first to systematically favor the introduction of trop- 

 ical plants; and when in 1754 a first expedition, sent out for this 

 purpose by the Emperor Francis 1 brought home its treasures, it 

 established at one stroke the world-wide fame of Schonbrunn. The 

 number of tropical plants in European gardens gradually increased 

 until in 1830 there were about 1,000 species. Then the e.stal^lishment 

 of steam navigation and regular transmarine service created quite new 

 and favorable commercial conditions, since when the number has been 

 augmented about sixfold. 



As a great part of the collection is withdrawn into greenhouses, there 

 has arisen a considerable difiiculty in suitably arranging the plants. 

 Only exceptionally, when large areas of ground and great endowments 

 are available, is it possible to make it at the same time an exhibition 

 garden for the general public. It remains chiefly an institution for 

 instruction, and for that reason can not be arranged from a strictly 

 aesthetic point of view. Two difl'erent principles for its arrangement 

 have been suggested; it is a pity that neither of them can be consist- 

 ently and logically carried out. According to the older plan, it was 

 sought to instruct the spectator as to the difl'erent families of plants 

 by arranging them according to a natural s,ystem. But herbs and trees 

 that belong to the same family can not be cultivated in the same bed; 

 one plant will stand in moist shade while its nearest relative will 

 have the sun and drought, not to mention the fact that one may endure 

 the climate, while the other nmst be placed in the greenhouse. A sys- 

 tematic survey of the vegetable kingdom, which would be desirable in 

 the garden, must therefore always be incomplete. The necessary gaps 

 are painfully apparent to any observant, systematic student, and to 

 complete these certain directors of gardens have had recourse to the 

 most grotesque devices. 



In the deepest shade of the hot and moist primitive forest of Sumatra 

 there lives upon the roots of trees a parasitic plant entirely destitute 

 of leaves, but which possesses instead the largest flower in the world, 

 for its diameter reaches a whole meter. Since 1860 this giant child 

 of the primitive tropical forest shades has been seen all summer long 

 in the botanical garden at Breslau, where it stands in the open air 

 among its relatives, and in spite of the coolness of our sun gleams 

 from afar. It blooms even all summer long, for it is made of tin. 

 Out of regard for the public no attempt has been made to imitate the 

 powerful odor of this plant, which is that of rotting flesh, perceptible 



