Apbil 29, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



645 



should be. I wish to ask you to bear in 

 mind that I speak upon gardens in col- 

 legiate instruction, and I shall keep strictly 

 to that subject. Many of my conclusions 

 do not apply at all to gardens of a different 

 type— public, university or other. 



Colleges differ much from one another in 

 many features, but from our present point 

 of view have these in common : First, they 

 have only an undergraduate constituency, 

 with practically no graduate work. Second, 

 they have extensive grounds, usually of a 

 rural character, which it is desirable to 

 make as beautiful as possible. Third, they 

 have a long summer vacation, with no sum- 

 mer schools or other instruction in that 

 time. Of these conditions, to which col- 

 legiate botanical gardens must be adjusted, 

 I shall speak in reverse order. 



The long summer vacation is even longer, 

 from the present point of view, than its 

 number of weeks implies, for most of our 

 students do not know enough to make 

 profitable use of the garden at the opening 

 of college, while the great number of social 

 and other distractions at the end of the 

 college year, not to mention the attractions 

 of the native flora, seriously shorten its 

 period of usefulness in the spring. Conse- 

 quently the part of a botanical garden 

 of most use in a college is that in which 

 plants are alive and at work during the 

 winter months, viz., the greenhouses. 

 There is no question that, so far as scien- 

 tific instruction in a college is concerned, 

 suitable greenhouses are far more valuable 

 than any outdoor garden. 



Yet the long summer vacation does not 

 by any means empty a college garden of its 

 utility or desirability. The part which the 

 vacation renders least useful is the herba- 

 ceous garden, arranged on the systematic 

 plan, and I am not sure but that, if I were 

 starting all over again, I would omit this 

 part, closely identified though it is with the 



very idea of a botanical garden. Another 

 kind which the long vacation would render 

 of slight use is an ecological garden, that 

 consisting of beds designed to illustrate 

 types of structure, of dissemination meth- 

 ods, of cross-pollination mechanisms, and 

 the like, for these would be well-nigh use- 

 less in early spring and late fall. Indeed, 

 such observation and limited experimenting 

 as I have been able to make on such beds 

 leads me to disbelieve in their value aside 

 from this limitation. It is impossible to 

 have many of the forms illustrative of a 

 certain idea in good condition at the same 

 time; many of the forms best illustrating 

 an idea are otherwise very unattractive and 

 often difficult to grow ; and even when such 

 beds are developed, there are few people 

 who can understand them unless they al- 

 ready know the subject with some thor- 

 oughness. I think it is usually true that 

 gardens prepared to illustrate any artificial 

 plan or idea, whether ecological, historical 

 (e. g., plants mentioned by Shakespeare) 

 or other, are very unattractive in appear- 

 ance and difficult to maintain effectively. 

 These objections do not apply to natural 

 gardens, viz., rock gardens, water gardens, 

 wild gardens, in which plants are grown 

 in natural surrounding's ; for these plants 

 and places can be made so attractive as to 

 draw appreciation and notice from all, and 

 when suitably labeled, as of course all parts 

 of the garden must be, they are decidedly 

 instructive. We have at Smith College a 

 very attractive rock garden, with a variety 

 of exposures, containing many kinds of 

 plants, from cliff dwellers to shade-loving 

 ferns, and it amply repays its cost in the 

 pleasure and the instruction it gives to its 

 many visitors. 



Another part of the outdoor garden that 

 is well worth while despite the long vaca- 

 tion is the collection of trees and shrubs, 

 especially as these are needed for the beau- 



