EDUCATIONAL WORK 99 



College of Science, and to other teaching bodies, 

 for lectures and examinations, and also to those 

 engaged in botanical research. More than 

 1,000 packets of seeds are sent every year to 

 other botanical gardens. Advanced students 

 work in the laboratory. It was there that the 

 riddle, why some peas acquire wrinkles with 

 age, was answered. At the present time ex- 

 periments are being carried on to discover what 

 fumigation is most fatal to the various parasites 

 of plants ; on what stocks Ribston pippins are 

 best grafted ; what remedy there is for disease 

 of hops ; what alkaloids are found in henbane. 

 Semi-public lectures, too, are given in the 

 large lecture-room. 



Meetings of the Managing Committee are 

 arranged by the Trustees of the London 

 Parochial Charities, and for some years Sir 

 William J. Collins has been chosen as Chairman. 



Nature study in some form or other is now a 

 recognized part of education ; and much use 

 is made of the Physic Garden by those engaged 

 in teaching. A knowledge of botany seems 

 almost essential to any study of biology. And 

 botany is the best means of teaching in a simple 

 way the conditions of life and growth in all 

 living things. 



A botanic garden is a microcosm of the earth, 

 with its fields, woods, rocks and lakes, where 

 plants can be seen growing, buds opening, and 

 even in London, bees at work on the blossoms ; 

 and it widens the view of those whose time 

 has to be chiefly spent in looking through a 

 microscope. 



A knowledge of botany is also a necessity 



