THE SOCIAL, EDUCATIONAL, AND SCIENTIFIC VALUE 

 OF BOTANIC GARDENS. 1 



By Prof. John Merle Coulter. 



It is a noteworthy fact that the United States is beginning to ap- 

 preciate botanic gardens. This appreciation may be relatively super- 

 ficial as yet, but the superficial is usually the preliminary step that 

 leads to the fundamental. The desirability of botanic gardens was 

 not obvious when large areas in a state of nature were available to 

 almost every one; but when we developed congested populations in 

 cities and made artificial most of our open areas, the thought of bo- 

 tanic gardens began to take form. 



Those of you who have traveled in Europe must have been im- 

 pressed by the multiplicity of such gardens. They began there in 

 the form of monastic gardens, in which the so-called " simples," used 

 in primitive medicine, were cultivated. Then they came out into the 

 open as city gardens, chiefly for the enjoyment of the people and to 

 beautify the city. Finally, they became also scientific, and gradu- 

 ally led to such great establishments as the botanic gardens at Rome, 

 Geneva, and Paris, the great modern gardens on the outskirts of 

 Berlin and Munich, and that greatest of all garden establishments, 

 the Kew Gardens of London. These are but conspicuous illustra- 

 tions of what almost every European city had developed before we 

 began to think of garden establishments. 



I wish to speak of three conspicuous contributions that such an 

 establishment can make, not all of which are appreciated as they 

 should be. There is no better audience for this purpose than the 

 friends and supporters of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, which has 

 achieved more in certain directions than any other garden in the 

 country. I wish you to realize, not only that your support is justi- 

 fied, but also that perhaps you have builded better than you knew. 

 I shall speak of these three contributions in what I conceive to be 

 the inverse order of their importance, in the sense that the superficial, 

 however desirable, is less important than the fundamental. 



1 Address delivered at the dedication of the laboratory building and plant houses of 

 the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Apr. 19, 1917. Reprinted by permission from Science, 

 June 29, 1917, N. S., vol. 45, No. 1174. 



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