210 E^VXDY AND PEEADEXIA [Pakt YII. 



the botanic garden of Peradenia. But the object of 

 such institutions, and the functions of their cmators, 

 are still unperfectly appreciated even in the locahties 

 to whose welfare they are most conducive ; OTvdng chiefly 

 to an ignorant impatience for results which in their 

 veiy nature must be prospective. The fact is over- 

 looked, that such fomidations are designed not for in- 

 dividual benefit, but for the collective advantage of 

 communities by the gradual apphcation of science to 

 material development. 



Objects at fii'st despised and insignificant, become 

 sources of colonial wealth under the auspices of the bo- 

 tanist ; and, on the other hand, productions upon which 

 the prosperity of a region may be dependent, are liable 

 to destruction and decay in the absence of his experience 

 and counsels.^ It is wise pohcy in the government of 

 a country, and most of aU of a new and unexplored 

 one, to encoirrage the cidtivation of science for its 

 own sake, confident that its labours, if not remunerative 

 at the moment, will prove infallibly productive in the 

 future. 



The colonial botanist, in addition to the care and 

 nomenclatm'e of plants, useful, rare, and ornamental, and 



^ Witness the wholesale destruc- practical information, however accu- 



tion of the forests of India for im- rate and extensive, is useless beyond 



mediate profit ; the expenditiue on im- their own sphere. On my return to 



remunerative cultivation ; the waste I England, I was no less stiaick with 



of money and labour in useless drain- the fact (which as a juror was 



ing and planting ; the neglect of in- prominently brought before me) 



valuable products, and the substitu- that, for want of a little botanical 



tion of those that are worthless ; all knowledge on the pai-t of the ex- 



ascribable to the want of scientific hibitors, large collections of veget- 



knowledge and guidance. Dr. Hooker able produce, sent to the Great 



remai-ks (preface to the Flora of Neio ■ Exhibition, were rendered all but 



Zealand) : " During a residence of valueless." In these instances, had 



some years in om- colonies and foreign the scientific names been attached, it 



possessions, I have observed that the woidd have been easy to have given 



inhabitants are invariably anxious to such a popular and accurate accoimt 



acquia-e the names of the plants of the articles in question, that they 



around them ; they regret not ha^'ing might have been recognised by any 



leanit the rudiments of botany in one acquainted with the rudiments of 



their youth, and are most desirous botany, and thus dii-ect benefit would 



that their children slioidd be in- have accriied to the colonies produc- 



structed in them, feeliug that their ing them. 



