THE GARDEN AND ITS DEVELOPMENT. 41 7 



for 20 meters around, Imt without thut it .s .-^urely the strangest t1ow(>r 

 that scientific pedantry has ever reared. 



Besides the systematic arrano-ement it has been recently attempted 

 to arrange the plants of the botanic garden according to their geo- 

 graphic distribution, so that the various kinds that make up the tlora 

 of a particular region may be presented as a complete whole. If it 

 were possible to carry out this principle, there could certainly be 

 nothing more instructive than to thus bring together in a small space 

 views of the vegetation of the most diverse regions as a living object 

 lesson; but, alas! this can not be done. Differences in vegetation 

 depend essentially upon differences in climate: that is to say, upon 

 temperature, exposure, the movement of the air, and the special way 

 in which these factors are distributed throughout the year. As, how- 

 ever, any garden is associated with only one climate, it is a hopeless 

 undertaking to attempt to reproduce together the floras of very diverse 

 regions. This succeeds well with single species, but if we include 

 more, we can in Germany, for example, succeed only tolerably even 

 with floras of climates quite similar to ours, such as those of North 

 America and eastern Asia. But we fail when we try to grow in 

 botanical gardens the flora of the Mediterranean countries. German 

 gardens have indeed tried to do this, but since the olBcial director of 

 one of them practically admits that the Italian flora is represented 

 onlv b}" specimens of the olive tree, the tig tree, the myrtle, and the 

 fig cactus (that naturall}' can only be kept out during the sunmier), 

 and by a few species of tulips and narcissuses, which at this time of the 

 year have disappeared from view and are represented only by labels, 

 it may indeed be said that he is self-deceived who supposes that such 

 an inadequate representation can be of any value for purposes of 

 instruction or {esthetics. Even when under the most favora))le circum- 

 stances — that is to say, in a heated greenhouse — the })ul)Iic thinks that 

 it sees a representation of tropical vegetation, the <>tt'ect is very 

 incomplete and one-sided, as the necessities of space compel the 

 crowding of the plants into a confined, narrow, and proportionall}' 

 small building, as is expressed indeed in the name "'palm house." 

 Now, in the Tropics the dicotyledonous trees constitute a nuu-h greater 

 portion of the total vegetation than in more tenqx'rate climes, and 

 ;dl these characteristic forms must ])e rejected because they woidd take 

 up too nuich room and keep too much light from the other plants. 

 The European t)()tanists therefore look with envy, and for many 

 reasons not without justice, upon the botanical gardens of tropical 

 countries, of which, indeed, only those at Calcutta and Buitenzorg. in 

 Java, are scientific institutions. 



As regards, however, an absolutely complete representation of the 

 plant world, they are still worse off' than we are in Europe. We can 

 SM d\) 27 



