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SCIENGE. 



LN. S. Vol. IV. No. 88. 



separate glass houses ; and to these will 

 usually be added dwelling houses for some 

 of the officers, a stable and other minor 

 buildings. The character, number and 

 sizes of the buildings generally depend on 

 financial considerations. In placing the 

 structures intended for the visiting public, 

 considerations of convenient access, satis- 

 factory water supply and the distribution 

 of crowds must be borne in mind, in con- 

 nection with the landscape design. The 

 planting should follow, as nearly as possi- 

 ble, a natural treatment, except immedi- 

 ately around the larger buildings and at 

 the entrances, where considerable formality 

 is desirable for architectural reasons. It is 

 especially desirable that as much natural 

 treatment as possible should be given to the 

 areas devoted to systematic planting— her- 

 baceous grounds, frutecetum, arboretum. 

 The rectilinear arrangement of plant beds 

 found in most of the older gardens has be- 

 come abhorrent to landscape lovers, and the 

 sequence of families desired can usuallj^ be 

 quite as well obtained by means of curved- 

 margined groups. 



The cultivation of decorative plants, and 

 especially the fostering of a taste for them, 

 and the bringing of unusual or new species to 

 attention and effecting their general intro- 

 duction, are important functions of a botan- 

 ical garden. For the accurate determination 

 of these plants, information concerning their 

 habits and structure, and suggestions re- 

 garding the conditions of their growth, the 

 aesthetic side must rely on the scientific. 



The Scientific or Biologic Element, — The 

 important relations of the scientific depart- 

 ment to the economic and aesthetic have 

 already been alluded to. The library, her- 

 barium, museums and laboratories are the 

 sources whence exact information regard- 

 ing the name, structure, habits, life-pro- 

 cesses and products of plants are derived, 

 and thej^ are the more useful as they are 

 the more complete and thoroughly equipped. 



It is practically impossible for any one 

 library to have all the literature of botany 

 and related sciences ; any one herbarium 

 to possess an authentic and complete rep- 

 resentation of all species of plants, or any 

 one museum to be thoroughly illustrative ; 

 absolute perfection along these lines cannot 

 be obtained, but the more closely it is ap- 

 proximated the better the results. The re- 

 search work of the scientific department 

 should be organized along all lines of botani- 

 cal inquiry, including taxonomy, morphol- 

 ogy, anatomy, physiology and paleon- 

 tology, and the laboratories should afford 

 ample opportunities and equipment for 

 their successful prosecution. 



The arrangement of the areas devoted to 

 systematic planting, and the proper label- 

 ing of the species grown, are important 

 duties of the scientific department. The 

 sequence of classes, orders and families is 

 usually made to follow some ' botanical 

 system.' It is highly desirable that this 

 should be a system which indicates the 

 natural relations of the families, as under- 

 stood at the time the garden is laid out, 

 and be elastic enough to admit of subse- 

 quent modification, as more exact informa- 

 tion relative to those relationships is ob- 

 tained. The weight of present opinion is 

 overwhelmingly in favor of an arrange- 

 ment from the more simple to the more 

 complex, and this will apply not only to the 

 systematic plantations, but to the systematic 

 museum and the herbarium. 



The scientific possibilities of a botanical 

 garden are the greater if an organic or co- 

 operative relationship exists between it and 

 a university, thus affording ready facilities 

 for information on other sciences. 



The Philanthropic Element. — A botanical 

 garden operates as a valuable philanthropic 

 agency, both directly and indirectly. Its 

 direct influence lies through its affording an 

 orderly arranged institution for the instruc- 

 tion,information and recreation of the people 



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