ARBORETUMS AND BOTANIC GARDENS 287 



might be gardens showing the sequence of bloom 

 from early spring to late fall. A comprehensive 

 botanic garden should contain somewhere a collec- 

 tion of medicinal plants, of plants noted for their per- 

 fume, a bog-garden, and plants arranged with regard 

 to the color of their flowers. 



There is hardly any limit to the number of ideas 

 that can be followed in designing a botanic garden. 

 No artificial scheme, however, can be quite as satis- 

 factory to the botanist as nature's own garden when 

 left undisturbed. A botanist likes to go to an un- 

 frequented marsh, or a bit of woods, a meadow, the 

 margin of a lake, or a hedge row. No botanic gar- 

 den is ever more interesting than the more or less 

 open woods on the back end of a farm, containing 

 perhaps a stream supplemented by pools of water 

 occupying its abandoned channels in which water- 

 lilies and various water plants are growing ; woods 

 protecting shade-loving flowers ; woods filled with 

 openings of moist soil, where many kinds of ferns 

 will find a congenial home ; woods including sunny 

 sandy ridges for lupines, puccoon, spiderwort and 

 various graceful grasses; woods having some ever- 

 greens and larches with moist partially shaded situ- 

 ations beloved by lady-slippers and ladies' tresses. 



