648 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXI. No. 800 



primarily grouped artistically and second- 

 arily on a systematic plan, third of natural 

 gardens, and fourth of a limited systematic 

 herbaceous garden. In all, selection and 

 attractiveness of setting should be control- 

 ling principles. 



W. F. Ganong 



V A UNrVERSITT BOTANICAL GARDEN 



It requires some presumption for a mere 

 novice to talk on this theme, after the 

 fathers of our great botanical gardens have 

 spoken from their ripe experience. One 

 who neither grew up in a botanical garden 

 already established, nor has had time to 

 grow far with one established but a short 

 two years ago, can hardly be expected to 

 speak with authority. My only justifica- 

 tion for complying with the request of your 

 •secretary to participate in this discussion 

 is the fact that, in planning the botanical 

 garden for the Johns Hopkins University, 

 I have discovered what a goodly number of 

 problems confront the beginner in this kind 

 of work and how little detailed information 

 is to be found in print that will aid him to 

 overcome them. 



I may therefore, perhaps, be permitted 

 to say something of the purpose of our 

 garden, of some of the difficulties encoun- 

 tered, and of such solutions of these, or 

 part of them, as have either been worked 

 out at Homewood or gathered from the 

 experience of other gardens. These things 

 are said not only in the hope of being of 

 service to others who may be planning 

 gardens, but also of evoking from others 

 helpful criticism, that may be of aid to us 

 in the work at Homewood. 



That a botanical garden can be of great 

 value to university students does not stand 

 in need of proof to you of this audience. 

 I desire, however, to suggest some of the 

 particular ways in which I believe it may 

 be most useful. If universitv students are 



what they should be, in aim and industry, 

 it seems evident that access to a weU-ar- 

 ranged botanical garden may advantage- 

 ously replace class-room courses on certain 

 aspects of gross morphology, floral biology 

 and floristic geography, besides greatly en- 

 hancing the value of many of the formal 

 courses on other subjects, given in lecture 

 room and laboratory. 



A botanical garden which is to be of use 

 in the ways mentioned must suggest clearly 

 what it is intended to illustrate. It must 

 leave no suspicion of the aimlessness of a 

 ' ' cabinet of curiosities, ' ' but must show the 

 purposefulness of a skilfully arranged mu- 

 seum — a museum in which (as an able 

 museum director has said) the carefully 

 selected specimens illustrate a well-devised 

 series of labels, rather than one in which 

 the labels are mere name-tags for more or 

 less accidentally acquired specimens. 



Such a definitely planned garden can 

 well serve to extend the laboratory work 

 and to concentrate the field work. For in 

 the laboratory a student can not study 

 enough plants minutely to comprehend 

 them broadly ; in the field he can not study 

 any plant so thoroughly as to understand 

 it deeply. The garden renders a larger 

 variety of plants accessible, brings plants 

 of different regions together for ready 

 comparison, taxonomically, morphologically 

 and physiologically, makes it possible to 

 observe their activity and development 

 more continuously and, finally, gives the 

 most satisfactory opportunity of preserving 

 them at critical stages for future study 

 and comparison. The garden then does 

 not replace either field or laboratory, but 

 it does effectively link them. 



If now we consider more specifically the 

 functions a garden may serve we may sum- 

 marize them thus: 



1. It can illustrate certain phenomena of' 

 plant life which may be observed directly, 



