BOTANIC GARDEN 



BOTANIC GARDEN 



527 



The organization of all modern botanic gardens is 

 very similar in broad outline. There is usually a 

 director, with a scientific staff, and a head gardener, 

 with assistants. Some gardens are purely scientific 

 institutions. Such were the early gardens of Michaux, 

 in Charleston, South Carolina, of Darlington, in Ches- 

 ter, Pennsylvania, of Bartram, in Philadelphia, and of 

 Hosack, in New York City, all long since extinct, and 

 the Cambridge (England) Physic Garden. A large 

 number of "botanical stations" and "acclimatization 

 gardens" in the various colonies of European coun- 

 tries, the Desert Botanical Laboratory of the Carnegie 

 Institution of Washington, at Tucson, Arizona, and 

 the Acclimatization Garden of the same Institution at 

 Carmel, California, all devoted entirely to scientific 

 research, are often classed as botanic gardens, although 

 not such in a strict sense of the term. 



Many of the more purely scientific gardens are con- 

 nected with universities, or other institutions of learn- 

 ing, or closely affiliated with them. This, for example, 

 is true of the Hortus Botanicus at Amsterdam, where 



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versifies of Bonn, Breslau, Gottingen, Halle, Munich, 

 Strassburg, and W'urzburg, in Germany; of Athens, 

 in Greece; of Groningen, Leiden, and Utrecht, in Hol- 

 land; of Genoa and Modena, in Italy; of Kiev, Odessa, 

 and St. Petersburg, in Russia; of Basel, in Switzerland; 

 of Nikko and Tokyo, Japan; and in the United States, 

 those of the University of California (Berkeley), Har- 

 vard University (Cambridge, Massachusetts), Smith 

 College (Northampton, Massachusetts), Mt. Holyoke 

 College (South Hadley, Massachusetts), Michigan 

 Agricultural College (Lansing), the University of 

 Michigan (Ann Arbor), the University of Minnesota 

 (Minneapolis), the University of Pennsylvania (Phil- 

 adelphia), and Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore). 

 It is not uncommon in European countries to find 

 botanic gardens in connection with gymnasia (high 

 schools), and normal schools, but the only instance of 

 this kind in the United States, known to the writer, is 

 the botanic garden of the Michigan State Normal 

 School, at Ypsilanti. This garden, with an area of 3 

 acres, serves only the purpose of supplying study- 







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601. View in a botanic garden, showing related plants in groups. 



were conoucted the epoch-making experiments of De 

 Vries with the evening primrose, Oenothera Lamarckimw., 

 and other species, culminating in the elaboration of the 

 mutation theorj-, giving a new stimulus to studies in 

 experimental evolution and plant-breeding, and inci- 

 dentally illustrating how studies in pure botanical 

 Bcience, made primarilj' for their own sake, and seem- 

 ing, at first thought, ever so academic or impractical, 

 may be of inestimable value to such applied sciences as 

 horticulture and agriculture. 



Among other botanic gardens forming an integral 

 part of the organization of collegiate or university 

 departments of botany may be mentioned those of 

 Aberdeen, Dundee and St. Andrews universities in 

 Scotland; tho.se of Birmingham, Cambridge and Oxford 

 universities, and of the Royal Agricultural College at 

 Cirencester (Gloucester), in England; that of Trinity 

 College (Dublin), in Ireland; those of the universities 

 at Budapest, Czernowitz, Krakau, Lemberg, Prag, and 

 Vienna, in Austria-Hungary; of Ghent and Liege, in 

 Belgium; of Copenhagen, in Denmark; of the Catholic 

 university, in Lille; and the medical college and the 

 veterinary college in Lyons, France; those of the uni- 



material for the courses in botany, nature-study and 

 agriculture. 



It will be seen at a glance that botanic gardens are 

 much more common in Europe than in the United 

 States, and especially under governmental auspices. 

 The National Botanic Garden, at Washington, D. C, 

 has not been developed as a scientific institution to 

 the extent of several private or semi-private foun- 

 dations. 



Other so-called botanic gardens are little more than 

 public pleasure parks. Golden Gate Park, the munici- 

 pal park of San Francisco, and primarily a pleasure 

 park, is administered with some regard to .scientific 

 ideas, and is sometimes referred to as a botanical gar- 

 den. Here, also, for example, may be classed Prospect 

 Park, in Brooklyn, in which the labeling of the trees 

 gives a somewhat botanical aspect to the place. This 

 park is said to contain more different species of trees, 

 both native and foreign, than can be found elsewhere in 

 America outside of a true botanic garden or arboretum. 



A third type of garden combines the features of a 

 scientific institution for research and education with 

 those of a pubhc park. Of this nature are the Kew 



