526 BOTANICAL OPPORTUNITY. 



that an iustitution able to maintain an herbarium of half a million 

 specimens, representing oue-fiftb as many species, is doing exceedingly 

 well if it has in cultivation at anyone time 10,000 species of the higher 

 plants, and there are very few gardens which actually grow half of this 

 number, while no inconsiderable percentage of the plants cultivated 

 are so deformed, distorted, dwarfed, and imperfect, as a general thing, 

 that they can scarcely be said to represent the species whose name they 

 bear either in appearance or technical characters. 



This leads to the conclusion that not only class gardens but research 

 gardens should be kept within reasonably narrow bounds so far as 

 permanent planting is concerned, while allowing sufficient elasticity 

 for rapid and ample temporary expansion in certain directions along 

 which work is planned. This does not necessarily mean that any con- 

 siderable amount of land not used in the permanent plantation need 

 be reserved for special expansion. As a rule, the more important gar- 

 dens are situated in or near large cities, and the high price of land 

 alone would prevent such reservation in most instances; but the 

 impure atmosphere of many of the larger cities is a further and even 

 stronger reason for selecting, for any large exj^erimental undertaking, 

 a suitably located and oriented tract of farming land easily rented for 

 one or several years at a relatively low figure. 



Granting the wisdom of such temporary adjuncts to a research garden 

 a step further leads to a recognition of the possibility of securing the 

 most varied climatic conditions by establishing branch gardens, located 

 where particular kinds of study can best be carried on. In no other 

 way can gardens be made to contribute to the fullest extent to the 

 study of marine or seaside plants, alpines, or the great class of succu- 

 lents, etc., characteristic of the arid regions of our Southwestern States 

 and Territories, and in no other way, except in the field, can these 

 groups be studied satisfactorily, even from the standpoint of the clas- 

 sificatory botanist. 



Undoubtedly, too, the research institution of the future will count 

 as a part of its legitimate equipment the provision, as needed, of very 

 liberal opportunities for its staff to visit even distant regions for the 

 study, in their native homes, of plants which can not be cultivated 

 even in special gardens in such a manner as to be fully representative. 



If the entire equipment here sketched in outline is not only appro- 

 priate but essential to the great centers of botanical investigation that 

 are making their appearance as results of the specialization and divi- 

 sion of labor that are now manifesting themselves in the endowment 

 of research, it by no means follows that every institution, even of this 

 class, should try to develop from the start on all of the lines which, 

 intertwined, compose the complex tissue of botany. With ample 

 means, the ideal development is that which, from the beginning, rec- 

 ognizes all branches as of value, and classifies and develops them 

 alike in proportion to their relative importance. But to secure the 

 greatest return for the money expended, it is desirable to equip fairly 



