606 FOREST CULTURE AND 
successful competition with the Sicilian Sumach, the 
species from which gatherings are made in the United 
States being chiefly Rhus glabra, Rh. typhina and Rh. 
copallina—all rich in tannic acid—all to be seen in our 
botanic garden. In translocations of this kind, which, 
under the sanction of usage, we are accustomed to 
call acclimation, we are expected to take a leading 
share; the former is the apter term, inasmuch as the 
possibilities of changing constitutional endurance to 
clime are restricted to narrow bounds. I should have 
spoken of the uses of a botanic garden as a horticul- 
tural school; of excursions to emanate from it into the 
flower-fields of the near environs; of the aid which 
ours has afforded to provide the festive boughs and 
decorative flowers at thousands of fetes for our chari- 
ties ; but our time has drawn toa close. I intended 
to have also spoken of ‘« the marvels of vegetation ”’ 
which it might display, but must reserve this theme 
- for a special lecture. Still this I would say, that all 
teachings should be in such a form in our own state 
gardens as not to encroach on the functions of our 
famed University, which has made already early and 
special provision for phytologic instruction. 
For toxicologic experiments in a botanie garden 
the various poison plants become of importance, irre- 
spective of the guardianship which the display of these 
plants in a living state so instructively exercises. In- 
vestigations of this kind require lengthened attention, 
the separation, analysis, and identification of organic 
poisons being surrounded with far more difficulty than 
the examination of metallic or other inorganic sub- 
stances. Beside, the development or intensity of the 
deleterious principle depends often on local causes, 
