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BOTANIC CiARUEN 



BOTANY 



sorts are designated by labels of different color from 

 those of introduced species. (3) Morphological Sec- 

 tion, with divisions of (a) External Anatomy and (6) 

 Comparative Morphology. (4) Ecological Section, 

 adjacent to and including the swamp section of the 

 brook and extending back to include a dry knoll. Here 

 is illustrated the adjustment of plants to environmental 

 influences. (5) Evolution Section, illustrating such 

 subjects as variation, inheritance, artificial and natural 

 selection (including the origin of horticultural forms), 

 struggle for existence, and survival of the fittest. (6) 

 Economic Section with divisions of (a) Foods and Con- 

 diments, (6) Medicinal and Poisonous Plants, and (c) 

 Fiber Plants. (7) Weed Section, to show the botanical 

 characteristics of weeds, as bearing on their economic 

 significance. (8) Formal Garden Section, in front of 

 the laboratory building and greenhouses, and serving to 

 illustrate the uses of plants, chiefly horticultural, for 

 purely ornamental purposes. (9) Arboretum, a col- 

 lection of trees, chiefly native. (10) Fruticetum, a col- 

 lection of shrubs, both native and exotic. The arbore- 

 tum and fruticetum features are developed in close 

 connection with the other sections, and in the syste- 

 matic garden the aim has been to group the shrubs and 

 trees as near as practicable to the herbaceous material 

 with which they are most closely related. The willows 

 and alders are grown along the brook. 



The Garden issues an administrative quarterly, "The 

 Brooklyn Botanic Garden Record" (the April number of 

 which contains the Annual Report), Contributions, 

 and Guides. A series of Memoirs and of Educational 

 Leaflets is also projected. Admission to the grounds is 

 free daily, including Sundays and holidays, from 8 A.M. 

 until sunset. The Garden is supported by annual munic- 

 ipal appropriations, by the income from an endowment, 

 amounting at present to over $50,000, and by gifts. 



Suggestions from the foregoing. 



As may be inferred from what has preceded, the his- 

 tory of botanical gardens has shown a steady progress- 

 ive development from collections of medicinal herbs, 

 gathered and studied with reference to their economic 

 uses, to institutions endeavoring to maintain collections 

 of all kinds of plants, both herbaceous and woody, 

 some ornamental and useful, but perhaps most of them 

 collected and studied for their own sake, from the stand- 

 point of pure science, with an endeavor to understand 

 the nature as well as the uses of plants. The Chelsea 

 Garden affords a concrete illustration of this, for while 

 the collections here were at first almost entirely confined 

 to medicinal plants, these now form only a compara- 

 tively small portion of the collections. In this way, and 

 in this way only, may botanical science be most rapidly 

 and most surely advanced, to the advantage not only 

 of pure science itself, but of horticulture, agriculture, 

 forestry, pharmacology, and all phases of applied 

 botanical science. 



It was one of the marks of greatness and of sound 

 judgment of Sir William Hooker, that he aimed defi- 

 nitely to make Kew Gardens not only a scientific insti- 

 tution of the first rank, but to make them beautiful, 

 attractive to the general public. This latter aim has 

 been too often neglected or minimized, on the theory 

 that a botanic garden is a scientific institution, and 

 should, therefore, be developed with little regard for 

 the non-scientific public. This is an unfortunate and 

 unfair attitude, unfair to the general public, espe- 

 cially in those gardens which are supported in part 

 by public money, and unfortunate for botanical science 

 because it not only neglects a very important aspect of 

 botany applied botany, but loses the opportunity of 

 enlisting the intelligent sympathy of the community 

 with botanical endeavor. Many persons who might 

 otherwise remain quite indifferent to botanical work in 

 general, or even to the work of a given garden in 

 particular, may, through being attracted primarily by 





! 



the beauty of the collections and grounds, be led to give 

 generous support to such work, or even to discover that 

 their own main interest is botany, and ultimately to 

 advance the science by their own studies. 



It is unfortunate that the United States government 

 has no national garden to do for our own country what 

 Kew has done for England. The climate and location 

 of Washington combine to make the capital city an 

 admirable place for the development of a botanic gar- 

 den, and two or three branch gardens could be estab- 

 lished to advantage in parts of the country, giving 

 wide diversity of climatic conditions, such as one of 

 the extreme southern states, the great American desert, 

 and one of the most northern states. 



With only very little additional expense, many city 

 parks could be made more interesting and instructive, 

 and none the less beautiful and attractive, by giving 

 potions of them more the character of a botanic gar- 

 den, at least by suitably labeling the trees and shrubs 

 and growing them with some regard to botanical 

 affinities. 



With the exception of the Missouri Botanical Gar- 

 den, there is nowhere offered in the United States a 

 thorough course of study for the purpose of training 

 gardeners to take charge of botanic gardens. The 

 training received in a few months' experience with 

 a commercial florist or seedsman is not sufficient, nor 

 do horticultural courses in our agricultural colleges 

 answer the purpose. Botanic gardens need for garden- 

 ers, and especially for head-gardeners, men 

 whose training has included not only in- 

 struction in the care and management of 

 greenhouses, and in plant-propagation and 

 cultivation, but also a thorough laboratory 

 course in the elementary principles of 

 botany, a course in systematic botany, 

 including the collection and identification 

 of a minimum number of wild plants, an 

 elementary course in plant pathology, with 

 emphasis on methods of treatment, a 

 course in the physics and biology of soils, 

 and also in such specialized work as acces- 

 sioning and labeling. The general educa- 

 tion of men for these positions ought also 

 to be such as to enable 

 them to express them- 

 selves well in writing, 

 and to give courses of 

 instruction to others in 

 the various practical 

 phases of their work, 

 such as greenhouse 

 economy, plant - pro- 

 pagation, and the care 

 of herbaceous and 

 woody plants out-of- 

 doors. The recent suc- 

 cess of a number of popular books 

 on gardening indicates a rather 

 widespread demand for such infor- 

 mation on the part of amateurs 

 and people of comparative leisure, 

 as well as others. It is much 

 better to get this information in 

 connection with the actual opera- 

 tions of a scientifically adminis- 

 tered botanic garden, rather than 

 by the wholly inadequate method 

 of reading a book on the subject. 

 C. STUART GAGEB. 



BOTANY. The science that 

 treats of plants; plant-knowledge. 

 In its widest sense, and properly, 

 it includes much that, by common 604. Botrychium 

 consent, is usually included in obliquum. 



