72 
area of cultivation of tea are all examples 
that illustrate the direct benefit of Kew to 
the English colonial system. And this in- 
fluence is bound to extend still further. 
Many of the problems have been settled for 
the Asiatic colonies, and the Australasian 
region has begun to develop its own botan- 
ical centers ; but the vast areas just opening 
up in the Dark Continent and the problems 
that will arise in regard to its agricultural 
development are yet to be worked out. The 
Anglo-Saxon is the only race that can enter 
a country, hold it firmly and elevate it in 
the scale of civilization by making it more 
productive. France has to face the diffi- 
culty of keeping up her own home popula- 
tion, and her colonial development has been 
comparatively feeble; the Spanish have 
nearly blighted every country on which 
they have laid their hand ; and recent Ger- 
man attempts seem to merit for them the 
title of an impracticable people ; the Anglo- 
Saxon blood, English or American, is des- 
tined to be the leading colonizing and civil- 
izing spirit throughout the world in the 
future, as it has been in the past. 
4, Aside from the economic features of the 
garden influence, there are others affect- 
ing the development of botany as a pure 
science that may well be considered. Con- 
nected with the garden is the largest her- 
barium of the world. Here are the types* 
of all the plants published at Kew from the 
British colonies ; many others that have 
encircled the globe in every direction and 
have touched on every mainland and in- 
sular coast; others still that have been ob- 
* By a type is meant botanically the original speci- 
men from which the species was described when it 
was first made known. Thisspecimen has a particular 
value, for if any subsequent question arises regard- 
ing the species in question it must be set- 
tled by reference to this type. Not unfrequently in 
the case of plants described from imperfect material 
the type is a much less complete representative of the 
plant than specimens collected later, but any ques- 
tion of appeal must be to the type itself. 
SCIENCE, 
[N. S. Vou. X. No. 238. 
tained through the purchase or donation of 
collections of other than British botanists. 
Besides these there are authentic if not 
type specimens derived from miscellaneous 
sources, in many cases vouched for by the 
author of the species himself and distributed 
with his own label. 
In this way types or authenticated speci- 
mens of probably three-fifths or more of the 
135,000 known flowering plants and ferns 
are here represented, and usually a great 
number of specimens represent the varia- 
tions and geographic distribution of all ex- 
cept the rare species. More or less authentic 
specimens exist of most of the remaining 
two-fifths of the higher plants, so that the 
Kew herbarium is the consulting herbarium 
of every country, and its visitors’ list for 
a year will disclose the names of botanists 
throughout the world. While at Kew dur- 
‘ing one summer I met botanists from Ber- 
lin, St. Petersburg, Brussels, Geneva, Java, 
Ireland, Trinidad, the Channel Islands, 
Arizona and Minnesota, all consulting either 
the growing collection in the garden or the 
specimens preserved in the herbarium. 
The other great European collections, no- 
tably the ones at Berlin and Paris,* are im- 
portant and contain many types and must 
often be consulted for supplementing the 
types missing at Kew. The same may be 
said of other less important European col- 
lections, ranging from St. Petersburg to 
Madrid. The Torrey herbarium at Colum- 
*Tt was the writer’s opportunity, after spending a 
summer at Kew, to visit, for a short time, the collec- 
tion at the Jardin des Plantes. In this way the vast- 
ness of the Kew collection, as compared with that at 
Paris, was more forcibly impressed. At Kew the 
floras of even the French colonies themselves, collected 
by Frenchmen themselves, were abundantly repre- 
sented. At Paris the collection was conspicuous by 
their absence. Even the series of plants represent- 
ing the labors of French monographers are vastly bet- 
ter represented at Kew than at Paris. The Berlin 
collection, owing largely to the efforts of Dr. Engler, 
is much more important, and, in some directions, is 
rapidly gaining on its British rival. 
