[Vol. 2 



222 ANNALS OF THE MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN 



made necessary by the progress of the science of botany both 

 for teaching purposes and for research. 



Experiments in plant breeding, for instance, which are a 

 legitimate development of botanic garden research, demand 

 an amount of space which many gardens are unable to afford, 

 and in the tropics in particular such work has had to be rele- 

 gated to definite experiment stations. In England work of 

 this character is being carried on mainly in connection with 

 agricultural institutions and at the newly-founded John Innes 

 Horticultural Institution at Merton, under the direction of 

 Mr. Bateson, while in the United States such lines of inquiry 

 are being pursued with laudatory vigor by the United States 

 Department of Agriculture and by many other public and 

 private institutions. 



Another function of botanic gardens of first importance is 

 the opportunity they afford for the training of men; and in 

 work of this character Kew has probably played a larger 

 share than any other garden. From Kew, in the course of her 

 long history, her sons have gone out either as collectors or 

 gardeners to bring home plants of interest and of economic 

 value, or to take charge of the botanical establishments in the 

 British Colonies and Dependencies. A glance at the Kew roll 

 will also show how many of her young men are helping to 

 propagate the art and science of horticulture in the United 

 States of America. 



With some of our larger institutions one of the most import- 

 ant functions in the past has been the distribution of plants 

 of economic importance. The distribution of cotton seed, in 

 1732, by Philip Miller from the Chelsea Garden to Georgia 

 (the parent stock of upland cotton), the introduction of 

 Para and other rubber plants, and of Cinchona from South 

 America through the agency of Kew, of tea into India by the 

 Calcutta Botanic Garden, may be cited as a few among in- 

 numerable cases. There are those who have expressed the 

 opinion that this function of botanic gardens is now obsolete, 

 but it does not require much reflection to perceive how wide is 

 the field of usefulness still open in the direction of the intro- 

 duction and distribution of plants. 



