45^ 



NATURE 



[July 



1913 



capital itself. The site selected for it was on 

 one of the islands in the Neva, low-lying-, boggy 

 land, and the object the cultivation of medicinal 

 plants mainly for the army and navy. Hence it 

 was called the Apothecaries' Garden, and the 

 island itself Apothecaries' Island. Among those 

 attached to it were Siegesbeck and Falk, well 

 known from their connection with Linnaeus. In 

 1823, however, the garden was put on an entirely 

 new footing by Alexander I., who raised it to the 

 rank of a scientific institution under the title 

 Imperial Botanic Garden. His first director was 

 F. E. L. Fischer (1823-1850), who had already 

 risen into notice through his successful management 

 of the famous garden at Gorenki, near Moscow. 

 Thanks to his wide connections with botanists and 

 botanical gardens outside of Russia — he was inter 

 alia a personal friend and life-long correspondent 

 of William Hooker — and his active encouragement 

 oi>botanical research in the Russian Empire, he 

 was able in a short time to build up a very large 

 collection of living and dried plants. 



After Fischer's retirement in 1850 the history of 

 the garden was of a somewhat varied character. 

 From 1830 to 1863 it was under the ministry of 

 the Imperial Court, and there was at times a 

 danger of its becoming reduced to a nursery for 

 table decorations for the Court ; but when, in 

 1863, it was transferred to the Ministry of Agri- 

 culture it was definitely saved from that fate, and 

 it soon regained, and, in fact, eventually exceeded, 

 its old reputation under the double directorship 

 of Trautvetter and Eduard Regel, and afterwards 

 under Regel 's undivided control. If Regel, by 

 training and taste, inclined more towards horti- 

 culture and a lighter conception of the aims of 

 phvtography, his collaborator and colleague, the 

 scholarly hot aniens primarius and academician C. 

 Maximowicz, excelled through the rare thorough- 

 ness and comprehensiveness of his taxonomic 

 work. Both were fertile writers, and the explora- 

 tion of Turkestan, Siberia, and Central Asia, 

 which in those days proceeded with such marvel- 

 lous energy, found in them most able interpreters. 

 Maximowicz died in 1890, and Regel followed him 

 soon. 



After the short directorship of Batalin, the 

 present director, A. Fischer von Waldheim, until 

 then professor of botany in the University of 

 Warsaw, was appointed in 1897. With him 

 a new era began. It has so far resulted 

 in the comprehensive reorganisation of the 

 establishment and its transformation into a 

 great national institution for the study of 

 pure and applied botany, comparable to the 

 institutes of Kew and Dahlem, although less uni- 

 versal in its range in so far as it is expected to 

 serve in the first place the special interests of the 

 Russian Empire. To quote from the official 

 French g-uide, published on the occasion of the 

 jubilee, the Imperial Botanic Garden of Peter the 

 Great is intended for the study of the plants which 

 form the flora of Russia and the adjoining' parts 

 of Vsia, of economic botany, plant anatomy and 

 physiology, of plant parasites and the means to 

 NO. 2279, VOL. 91] 



tight them, for seed control, and the cultivation 

 and testing of plants of practical importance for 

 agriculture, horticulture, industries, and medicine, 

 and finally for the popularisation of the botanical 

 sciences. 



The garden covers an area of fifty acres, of which 

 thirty go to form what is called the "Park," or 

 garden proper, whilst 7*5 acres are under glass 

 and more than twelve are occupied by buildings. 

 The scientific staff consists of the director, three 

 chief botanists, one chief conservator, five conser- 

 vators, two assistant conservators, and one 

 librarian. For purely administrative purposes the 

 director has at his disposal a secretary, a cashier, 

 an "intendant," a clerk, and two assistant clerks, 

 these officials forming the "chancery," or 

 director's office. The garden work is super- 

 intended by two head gardeners, with two assist- 

 ants and thirty-five gardeners. There are about 

 fifty "fixed" labourers of both sexes, and about 

 as many artisans, guards, porters, and inferior 

 hands. The Botanic Garden comprises, beside the 

 "Park " and the glasshouses, the following distinct 

 departments : — the herbarium, the museum, the 

 library, the zoological laboratory, the seed control 

 station, the phytopathological station, the "semin- 

 arium," or depot for seeds, gathered in the garden 

 or sent in by travellers and explorers, or received 

 in exchange or by purchase, the "chancery," and 

 the school for gardening. 



A splendid new building for the herbarium and 

 library has just been completed, whilst another for 

 the museum collections, and on a similarly large 

 scale, is to be commenced next year. The garden 

 has also its own electric station and electric 

 engineer. It is not possible here to enter into 

 any details concerning those departments, but it 

 may be mentioned that the herbarium and the 

 library, both of which are among the richest in 

 the world, will no doubt remain for long the most 

 valuable portion of the establishment and the 

 centre of its activity. The herbarium is the 

 recipient of the collections of the numerous expedi- 

 tions organised by the Colonisation Commission 

 (since 1908), and devoted to a grandly planned 

 botanical survey of the Asiatic possessions of the 

 empire. As a similar survey is in course for 

 Russia proper, a collection is building up prob- 

 ably quite unique in its completeness and repre- 

 sentative character. A considerable addition to 

 the staff is contemplated, and concurrently an in- 

 crease of the budget of the garden to 160,000- 

 170,000 roubles (16,0007.-17,000?.). 



This brief account would be incomplete without 

 a word of admiration for the liberal and far-seeing 

 spirit in which the jubilee was conceived, and the 

 whole-hearted sympathies with which everyone, 

 from the representatives of the Imperial Family 

 and the Government down to the last delegate, 

 joined in the recognition of the national import- 

 ance of the work done by the establishment, and 

 still more of the work which is to go forth from 

 it in the future. There was not much boasting, 

 but a joyful expectation of new and greater 

 achievements. O. S. 



