1915] 



hill botanic gardens 219 



Functions of Botanic Gtaedens 



The varied functions performed by botanic gardens in the 

 course of their history have been indicated to some extent in 

 the preceding pages, and the gradual change in function from 

 that of the purely medicinal garden for the growing of simples 

 to the fuller conception of the true botanic garden has been 

 traced. 



With the increase in knowledge and interest in botany, new 

 plants were brought into cultivation from all sources and 

 gardens threatened to be overwhelmed by unarranged masses 

 of material. Classification, therefore, became a necessity and 

 various systems began to be put forward in response to the 

 demand. To these we cannot do more than make brief allu- 

 sion. After the efforts of Caesalpino came Morison's system 

 of classification, which did not receive general acceptance and 

 was absorbed into that of Ray, and neither system found 

 many adherents as regards the disposition of plants in the 

 botanic gardens. 



The two early systems which really dominated plant ar- 

 rangement were those of Linnaeus and Jussieu, the latter 

 finding acceptance in France, where the Linnaean system 

 never became established. 



To France, in consequence, we must look for the evolution 

 of the natural system of classification, and, with its adoption, 

 botanic gardens gradually developed into a means of provid- 

 ing a synoptical illustration of the whole vegetable kingdom. 



It was in the Trianon gardens that Bernard and A. L. de 

 Jussieu, towards the close of the eighteenth century, evolved 

 the idea of grouping plants according to a system based on 

 natural affinities, and the Trianon system was quickly imitated 

 and elaborated in course of time by Gartner, De Candolle, 

 Robert Brown, and others. 



With the revival of interest in plant collecting a new 

 development took place, and plant geography came to the 

 front as a basis of plant arrangement in botanic gardens. 

 Thus collections were made to represent the floras of definite 

 regions, such as that of New Holland or The Cape, and af- 



