418 THE GAECEN AND ITS DEVELOPMENT. 



at least, in warm houses, create for a few specimens of the tropical 

 floi-a the necessary conditions of existence. Tn a tropical climate, how- 

 ever, artificially cooled houses, and consequently all plants of a cool 

 climate, must naturally be completely out of the question, and one can 

 rely only upon annexes placed for this purpose in the mountains. As 

 some of those in Java have to be placed at a hei^-ht of 7,000 feet in order 

 to suffice for the needs of European plants, and can only be reached 

 from the main garden at Buitenzorg by a journey of several da3\s, 

 this is a disadvantage that essentially injures their utility, so that our 

 gardens appear in a certain sense to be more complete. 



Since with us the botanical garden has to contain a great ([uantity 

 of plant material that must be treated hy (juite diverse methods, it has 

 hitherto been found impossible to give to its arrangement any form 

 that would meet the demands of an artistic style. A view of any such 

 institution will show that it is the result of a compromise between 

 what is desirable and what is possible — a compromise between the 

 requirements of science and the aspirations of a3sthetics. The visitor 

 must not be surprised, therefore, if many of the most ])eautiful orna- 

 mental plants are omitted in the ])otanical garden as unimportant, 

 while inconspicuous ones are cultivated because, perhaps, some impor- 

 tant scientific ([uestion depends upon them. Though such a collection 

 can not riv^al the satisfactory and hai'monious impression produced by 

 {esthetic styles, yet we must remember that the botanical garden is in 

 a high sense intended for use — it has to serve science in that it concerns 

 itself with the investigation of living material, in that it gives for 

 education the necessary materials for demonstration, and brings before 

 students not indeed all plants, Init at least selected specimens of the 

 most important types of the vegetable kingdom. Not only for ele- 

 mentary instruction, but for the high school as well, it has been found 

 that education by observation is the best education. 



