Apbil 29, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



643 



3. Economic Applications. — Plants 

 grouped and labeled with reference to their 

 uses, or the uses of their products, are of 

 very direct interest to the public, coming, 

 perhaps, closer to ordinary lines of thought 

 than any other features of the vegetable 

 world, except those of beauty. The ar- 

 boretum illustrates the subject of forest 

 products without the necessity for a sepa- 

 rate grouping of trees. Economic features 

 of shrubs and herbaceous plants are best 

 brought out by a special installation classi- 

 fied as food plants, drug plants, fiber plants 

 and otherwise. As in the case of system- 

 atic grouping, economic installation has to 

 be piecemeal, using glass houses for trop- 

 ical economic plants and for those from 

 warm-temperate regions. The elaboration 

 of labels is of great importance and is, 

 perhaps, the most expensive feature in 

 the satisfactory display of useful plants. 

 These subjects can be very thoroughly 

 illustrated by the formation of museums 

 of economic plant products and this is 

 usually accomplished in highly developed 

 botanical gardens. A system of cross ref- 

 erences on labels between the living collec- 

 tions and the museum collections is a great 

 desideratum. The expense of such a sys- 

 tem is, however, very great, and it requires 

 constant attention, because the death of a 

 living plant, which can not at once be 

 replaced, complicates it. 



4. Geographical Distiihution.— Groups of 

 plants illustrating the botanical features of 

 regions other than those of the locality of 

 a botanical garden may be installed and 

 this feature is given more or less promi- 

 nence in the collections of many gardens. 

 As mentioned under biological relation- 

 ships, the information thus furnished is of 

 immediate interest to the public and in 

 some gardens geographical grouping has 

 been adopted as a primary classification. 

 Like the biological grouping, it has its lim- 



itations, and conditions of soil and climate 

 make it necessarily imperfect and incom- 

 plete. Any attempt at growing trees, 

 shrubs and herbaceous plants of a region 

 close together in limited areas, while at first 

 very interesting, ultimately fails because 

 of the gi'owth of the trees and the conse- 

 quent shading out of the lower plants, un- 

 less the trees are cut out and their value in 

 the grouping lost. Climatic conditions may 

 be overcome by temporary geographical 

 groupings, and in greenhouses some such 

 groups may be installed quite satisfactorily. 

 As to the relative value of the biological 

 over the geographical as a primary classi- 

 fication in large public gardens, there is 

 room for difference of opinion. An ideal 

 method, if space and funds are available, 

 would be to install both systems. 



5. Esthetic and Landscape Features.— 

 The public is more immediately interested 

 in landscape effects and in plants from the 

 standpoint of beauty than in most other 

 features of botanical gardens. Well-built 

 and well-kept grounds appeal to people as 

 attractive places to visit. Natural wood- 

 lands, thickets and meadows also interest 

 visitors, perhaps more keenly the residents 

 of cities, and in some respects, especially 

 from the standpoint of ecology, are as use- 

 ful educationally as the artificial planta- 

 tions. Landscape considerations applicable 

 to parks and private grounds are not 

 wholly adaptable to botanical gardens and 

 this is often notably true in the unhar- 

 monious fioral color contrasts necessitated 

 by the grouping, although these may be 

 minimized by careful selections. In most 

 botanical-garden planting it is sought to 

 display the plant in its natural form, so 

 that extensive massing of individuals is 

 avoided, although in large gardens space is 

 often available for both massed and open 

 planting. In the grouped plantations in- 

 congruous elements should be avoided, such 



