Septembek 4, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



285 



3 . The scientific or biologic. 



4. The philanthropic. 



These four elements have been given dif- 

 ferent degrees of prominence, depending 

 mainly upon local conditions, some gardens 

 being essentially aesthetic, some mainly sci- 

 entific, while in our public parks we find 

 the philanthropic function as the underly- 

 ing feature, usually accompanied by more or 

 less of the sesthetic and scientific. 



The Economic Element. — In the broadest 

 extension of this department of a botanical 

 garden there might be included, to advan- 

 tage, facilities for the display and investiga- 

 tion of all plants directly or indirectly use- 

 ful to man, and their products. This con- 

 ception would include forestry, pharmacog- 

 nosy, agriculture, pomology, pathology and 

 organic chemistry, and, in case the man- 

 agement regards bacteria as plants, bacteri- 

 ology. 



The display of the plants may be effected 

 by growing such of them as will exist with- 

 out protection in the locality in a plot, 

 more or less individualized, commonly 

 known as the Economic Garden, while 

 those too tender for cultivation in the open 

 are grown in the greenhouses, either in 

 a separate house or section, or scattered 

 through the several houses or sections, in 

 the temperatures best adapted to their 

 growth. The display of plant products, 

 best accompanied by mounted specimens of 

 the species yielding them, by photographs 

 and by plates, is accomplished by the 

 Economic Museum, where these are ar- 

 ranged in glass or glass-fronted cases, suit- 

 ably classified and labeled. It is believed 

 that the most useful results are obtained by 

 arranging this museum by the products 

 themselves, and thus not in biologic se- 

 quence, but by bringing together all drugs, 

 all fibres, all woods, all resins ; where the 

 same product is used in more than one in- 

 dustry the exhibit may be duplicated, more 

 or less modified, without disadvantage. 



The investigation of economic plants and 

 their products is accomplished through the 

 Scientific Department, and few valuable re- 

 sults can be reached unless the scientific 

 equipment is well developed. The two de- 

 partments must work conjointly, both on 

 account of the necessity of knowing just 

 what species is under investigation, its 

 structure, distribution and literature, and 

 in order that the most approved and exact 

 methods may be used in the research. Any 

 idea that the scieatific element can be dis- 

 pensed with in connection with economic 

 studies is palpablj^ untenable. 



Teaching and research in agriculture, 

 pomology and plant pathology are so well 

 organized in America, through our K'ational 

 Department of Agriculture and our numer- 

 ous agricultural colleges and schools, that 

 there is no great necessity for providing 

 elaborate equipments for those branches in 

 botanical gardens. But in case the endow- 

 ment of a garden were sufficiently large to 

 enable them to be successfully prosecuted, 

 in addition to more necessary work, there 

 can be no doubt that important additions 

 to knowledge would be obtained. On the 

 other hand, no such liberal allowances have 

 been made with us for forestry or phar- 

 macognosy, and research and instruction in 

 these sciences must prove of the greatest 

 benefit to the country. 



The jEsthetic Element.— The buildings, 

 roads, paths and planting of a botanical 

 garden should be constructed and arranged 

 with reference to tasteful and decorative 

 landscape effect. The possibilities of treat- 

 ment will depend largely upon the topo- 

 graphical character of the area selected and 

 the natural vegetation of the tract. The 

 buildings required are : A fire-proof struc- 

 ture or structures for museum, herbarium, 

 libraries, laboratories and offices; a glass 

 house with compartments kept at several 

 different temperatures for exhibition, prop- 

 agation and experimentation, or several 



