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EDITORIALS. 
THE suBjectT of botanic gardens is happily coming into promi- 
nence in the United States. The recent address of Dr. Britton at 
uffalo has put into our hands a succinct account of 
what has been done abroad and what has been begun 
in this country. The showing for America is better than was expected, 
and the promise of the immediate future seems to be very large. The 
two essential features of a botanic garden, popular education and 
botanical research, have been lost sight of for the most part in the 
humerous so-called gardens of many cities. Unless under scientific 
control they become merely places of cheap display, pleasant enough 
but not specially instructive, and certainly offering no facilities for 
research. Probably the only possible condition in which a botanic 
garden can be made to fulfill its real mission is to develop it in con- 
nection with a university, but if left to the university alone it will 
seldom command sufficient income to become largely effective. Ifa 
combination can be made between a university and a city, as in the 
case of the New York Botanical Garden, the largest results are possible. 
The growing demands of botanical science have brought every uni- 
versity face to face with the problem of a botanic garden, and it seems 
likely that the solution of this problem in America lies in the com- 
bination of university and municipality. 
Botanic Gardens 
l'HIs COMBINATION may not be so difficult as some suppose. 
Almost every municipality has one or more parks in various stages of 
cultivation. In most cases, if under high cultivation, the same monot- 
thas succession of a few common plants in beds of conventional 
orm appears. It is astonishing to note the limited range of plants 
s of forms 
ordinarily selected for parks, to the exclusion of the host 
Awaiting ‘cultivation and of far more interest even to the park fre- 
quenting public. In such a case an arrangement might be made 
between the park commissioners and the university by which a ee 
eeruow of the park area should be under the control of the university 
ind the plants to be cultivated. The advantage to the commissioners 
