526 



BORONIA 



BOTANIC GARDEN 



A. Sligmns large. 

 B. Lvs. less than 1 in. long; Ifts. in 1 or 2 pairs, plus an 



odd one. 

 c. Fls. borne singly. 



megastigma, Nees. Fig. 599. Height about 2 ft.: 

 Ivs. very sparse, %-%m. long, sessile, the upper with 1 

 pair, the lower with 2 pairs of Ifts. beside the end one; 

 Ifts. narrowly linear: fls maroon-purple outside, yel- 

 low within, borne less densely than in B. eiatior. At 

 times some fls. are chiefly brown, others chiefly pur- 

 ple. B.M. 6046. Var. aurea, Hort , has pale creamy 

 yellow fls. 



cc. Fls. borne in whorls of 4 or 6. 



heterophjlla, F. Muell. Height 5-6 ft. in Austra.: 

 Ivs. 1-1 J-^ in. long, sometimes simple, usually with 1 

 pair, rarely 2 pairs, of Ifts. : fls. bright scarlet, but usually 

 pictured as purplish crimson. Differs from B. elatior 

 and B. megastigma in its larger Ivs , fewer Ifts., more 

 brilliant fls. and longer filaments. Cult, only in its var. 

 brevipes, Hook, f., which differs merely in the shorter 

 peduncles. B.M. 6845. Gn 32:442. Of late years 

 it has been grown for Easter by florists to a consider- 

 able extent. 



BB. Lvs. more than 1 in. long; Ifts. in 2-6 pairs, plus an 



odd one. 



elatior, Bartl. Height about 4 ft.: pubescence vari- 

 able: Ivs. close-set, 1-2 in. long, J^Mm. broad, petioled, 

 with Ifts. in 2-6 pairs; Ifts. broader and shorter-acumi- 

 nate than in B. megastigma: fls. dark red-brown, or rosy 

 red, or purple, sometimes showing groups of widely 

 different colors on the same branch, and borne so 

 densely as to hide one side of the branch. B.M. 6285. 

 Gn. 10:312. F.E. 9:491. 



AA. Stigmas small. 



pinnata, Smith. Lfts. in 2-4 pairs, very smooth, 

 acute: peduncles dichotomous, 5-7-fld.; stamens 8. 

 B.M. 1763. L.B.Q 5:473. 



tetrandra, Labill. Lfts. in 4-5 pairs, obtuse, gla- 

 brous; branches pilose: pedicles short, 1-fld.: stamens 4. 



B. denticutata, Smith. 2-6 ft.: Ivs. mucronate, denticulate: fls. in 

 peduncled corymbs, rose-purple. B. Frdseri, Hook. (B. anemoni- 

 folia, Paxt.). 1-3 ft.: Ivs. tnfid, the wedge-shaped segms. entire 

 or 2-3-toothed: fls. axillary, solitary, pink. New Holland. P.M. 

 9:123. B. jndchOla, Turcz. (B. Drummondii, Planch.). 2 ft.: Ivs. 

 pinnatifid: fls. rose-pink, freely produced in spring and summer. 

 Var. dlba. A white-fid, form is known. F. S. 9:881. 



WILHELM MILLER. 



N. TAYLOR.t 

 BORZICACTUS: Cereus. 



BO SEA (after Kaspar Bose, German amateur of 

 plants, at Leipzig, about 1700). Amarantacex. Syn., 

 Bosia. Woody plants, rarely cultivated for their orna- 

 mental crimson berries. 



Upright shrub: Ivs. petioled, alternate, ovate to ovate- 

 lanceolate, entire: fls. small, with 2-4 bracts at the base, 

 in terminal spikes or racemes; sepals and stamens 5; 

 petals wanting; ovary with 3 subulate stigmas: fr a 

 1-seeded berry. Three species in the Canary Isls., 

 Cyprus and Himalayas. They can be cult, only in 

 warmer temperate regions. Prop, by seeds and proba- 

 bly by cuttings of young wood. 



Amherstiana, Hook. (Rodetia Amherstiana, Moq.). 

 Glabrous shrub: Ivs. ovate, acute or acuminate, 3-6 

 in. long, narrowed at the base into a petiole }4-%m. 

 long: fls. perfect, greenish, }^in. across, sessile, with 2- 

 4 bracts at the base, in terminal panicles: berries glo- 

 bose, Min. across, crimson. W. Himalayas. Adv, as 

 Bohea Amherstiana. The closely related B. yervambra. 

 Linn., from the Canary Isls., is sometimes cujt. in Old 

 World botanic gardens; it differs chiefly in its short- 

 stalked, polygamous fls., with only 2 bracts at the base. 



ALFRED REHDER. 



BOSTON FERN: Nephrolejrit. 



BOTANIC GARDEN, A collection of growing 

 plants, the primary purpose of which is the advance- 

 ment and diffusion of botanical knowledge. 



This purpose may be accomplished in a number of 

 different ways, and by placing emphasis on different 

 departments of the science. Some gardens, for exam- 

 ple, are preeminently centers of systematic botany, or 

 taxonomy; others of plant physiology and morphology; 

 while in two or three cases, more than special empha- 

 sis is placed on botanical education, or formal instruc- 

 tion, as distinguished from, or in close connection with, 

 research. But whatever the method, or wherever the 

 emphasis, the aim is the advancement of botany as 

 distinguished from horticulture or agriculture. Some 

 of the ideas embodied in botanic gardens are dis- 

 played in Figs. 600-603. 



All the scientific and educational work of a botanic 

 garden centers around the one important and essential 

 problem of maintaining a collection of living plants, 

 both native and exotic. The extent to which this may 

 be done depends largely on the local climate, and ex- 

 tremes are found in such gardens as Christiana, Nor- 

 way, where the glasshouse is of prime importance, and 

 Havana, Cuba, or Buitenzorg, Java, where the tropical 

 climate renders a conservatory superfluous. At Buiten- 

 zorg there are coolhouses instead of hothouses. 



Many ancient 

 gardens were 

 little more than 

 olive orchards, 

 and one of the 

 earliest of these 

 of which there 

 is any authentic 

 record is the 

 temple garden of 

 Karnak. There 

 was recently 

 discovered at 

 Thebes the tomb 

 of Nekht, the 

 head gardener of 

 this place, who 

 is believed to 

 have designed it 

 during the reign 

 of Thotmes III, 

 about 1500 B. C. 

 While the 

 early gardens 

 were cultivated largely for economic rather than orna- 

 mental purposes, yet the Greeks, as may well be 

 expected, developed ornamental flower-gardens, and 

 thia idea, with so many others of Greek origin, was 

 borrowed by the Romans. Among the best known of 

 the Roman ornamental gardens were those of Lucullus, 

 and of Pliny the younger. 



We learn from Pliny that during the first century of 

 the Christian era, Antonius Castor maintained in Rome 

 a garden of medicinal plants. Four hundred years pre- 

 vious to this however, or about 350 B. C., a botanic 

 garden was established in Athens by Aristotle. The 

 first director of this garden was Theophrastus, a pupil 

 of Aristotle, who fell heir to it on the death of the latter, 

 and was able to improve it by means of funds supplied 

 by a philanthropic citizen of Athens. 



The gap between these more ancient gardens and 

 those of today is, however, a wide one, and the modern 

 botanic garden may be considered as more immediately 

 derived from the private gardens of the herbalists in the 

 sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. One of the best 

 known of these was the garden of John Gerarde, in Hoi- 

 born. The plants here grown were chiefly medicinal 

 herbs, and the study of these collections, together with 

 the attempts to describe the plants accurately, grad- 

 ually developed into modern systematic botany. 



600. Entrance to botanic garden, Roseau, 

 Dominica, B. W. Indies. 



