EUCALYPTUS TREES. 597 
sight long been familiar. Perhaps, even, it is not too 
much to contend that no observant visitor can pass 
through a scientific garden, be it ever so often, with- 
out taking with him in each instance some new, in- 
structive information. 
All this must largely bear on technology. Unques- 
tionably any intelligent mind is pervaded by the idea 
that the study of plants must have important bear- 
ings; but often this is only a vague impression, and 
very few may really have a comprehensive persuasion 
of that actual relation which exists between botanic 
inquiry and utilitarian application, even of the cur- 
rent day ; much more difficult then must be the rec- 
ognition of all that which is only foreshadowed ina 
dim future. And yet we cannot cast our views around 
us without meeting, in every direction, objects deriv- 
ed from vegetation, if not plants themselves, drawn 
into applied use. From the strong beams of a build- 
ing, or the tall masts and weighty planking of a ship, 
to some of the most delicate articles of turnery, we 
see brought before us woods from often widely-distant 
countries ; or we notice, from the stout ropes of rig- 
- ging to the most tender threads, woven into wearing 
apparel, the utilization of basts from plants, which 
perhaps flourished in different zones and were reared 
by different races. What can be more instructive, 
then, and what can more readily lead to new local 
industries, than a special display of such fiber-plants, 
or any other group of utilitarian plants, in distinct 
areas of a botanic garden, where we may view them 
all at a glance, and from whence they may become 
disseminated ? The work ofa botanic institution for 
such purposes should, however, not be lightly dis- 
