512 



Garden and Forest. 



[MUMBER 514 



to succeed here, shows that the number of species of these 

 great families which can be really depended on to grow 

 permanently in this part of the world is a small one. Pinus 

 Strobus, Pinus resinosa, Pinus rigida, Picea alba, Picea 

 rubra, Juniperus Virginiana, Juniperus communis, Thuya 

 occidentalis, Tsuga Canadensis, Ginkgo biloba, Larix 

 Americana and Larix Europea are the only handsome trees of 

 these families which have shown themselves able to grow 

 in this climate to a large size and preserve in cultivation here 

 their mature beauty. All of these, with the exception of 

 the Ginkgo and the European Larch, belong to our northern 

 silva. In a second list may be placed Abies concolor, 

 Pseudotsuga taxifolia and Picea Engelmanni of the Rocky 

 Mountains, Taxus cuspidata, Abies homolepis, Abies 

 Veitchii, Picea Ajanensis, Pinus parviflora, Thuya Standishii 

 and Sciadopitys verticillata of Japan, Pinus Koraiensis of 

 Corea, Pseudolarix Kaempferi and Pinus Bungeana of 

 northern China, Abies Nordmanniana, Abies Cilicica and 

 Picea orientalis of Anatolia. The trees in this second list 

 all do well in the northern states, where they have been 

 grown from twenty-five to fifty years, although none 

 of them have been tried long enough yet to show 

 their ability to thrive permanently here. In a third 

 list of species promising in this climate, but still less 

 tried than those of the second list, may be placed Abies 

 Sachalinensis, Pinus densiflora, Abies lasiocarpa, the two 

 Japanese Hemlocks, Thuya plicata, Tsuga Caroliniana, 

 Tsuga Pattoni, Picea Omorika, Larix Dahurica and Tumion 

 nuciferum. If these all succeed here the number of plants 

 of these families which we can really depend on is still very 

 small, and the permanent decoration of the parks and gar- 

 dens of the north-eastern states will have to be largely 

 made of broad-leaved trees, which flourish here almost as 

 well as in any other part of the world, and of a compara- 

 tively small number of species of Taxids and Conifers. 



a s. s. 



The Botanic Garden of Smith College. 



A STUDY OF AN EDUCATIONAL ADAPTATION. 



IT is plain to all who read the signs of the times that the 

 present trend of botanical activity is toward the study of 

 the phenomena of the life of plants. The facts of plant-struc- 

 ture, and of plant-relationships as suggested by resemblances 

 of structure, have been relatively so well studied that for the 

 present and near future the most attractive problems must lie 

 in the investigation of the causes of structure. The plant static 

 needs to be, and is being, explained by the study of the 

 plant dynamic. But as investigation leads, so must education 

 follow. For the systematic pursuit of physiology and ecology, 

 however, a botanic garden with a well-proportioned green- 

 house system is essential ; and it is rapidly coming to pass 

 that a college must provide these if it is ambitious to keep 

 abreast of the general advance. 



It is in this spirit that Smith College has established its Bo- 

 tanic Garden. As an attempt to realize with fair rapidity and 

 minimum expense, a preformed plan which should express 

 the optimum of adaptation to the present demands and indi- 

 cated tendencies of botanical education, this venture is, per- 

 haps, without exact precedent, and its results must possess, bo- 

 tanically and educationally, a far more than sectional interest. 



The history of this Garden is very brief. In 1891 the trustees 

 of the college, following the recommendation of President 

 Seelye, to whose initiative and constant interest the Garden 

 owes everything, decided to attempt to combine the beautify- 

 ing of the college grounds with the formation of a scientifically 

 planned botanic garden which should serve as an adjunct to 

 the department of botany. Messrs. Olmsted, Olmsted & Eliot 

 were engaged to draw up the plans, and in 1892 planting was 

 begun. The next year a small greenhouse was built. In 1894 

 the position of Director of the Botanic Garden and Professor 

 of Botany was established and an appointment made. Since 

 then, though with large changes in the original plans made 

 necessary for practical reasons, development has gone steadily 

 on. Some progress has been made in the school of trees and 

 shrubs ; the herbaceous garden is nearing completion ; the 

 greenhouses are finished and stocked ; the work of adminis- 

 tration is systematized. 



The collegecampus contains about thirty acres, including the 

 space occupied by the nineteen buildings (see map on p. 513). It 



is roughly quadrangular in shape, and, as to surface, consists of 

 two nearly equal plains differing fifteen to twenty feet in eleva- 

 tion, the higher on the north-east, with a slope of varying steep- 

 ness between. The soil is mostly poor. There were originally 

 some fine trees on the grounds, and two or three good vistas 

 and open spaces, and from several points there are beautiful 

 views of the distant hills or over a little lake and the woods 

 beyond. Happily, the campus is not a public thoroughfare. 

 Except for the herbaceous garden and a large open meadow, 

 the entire grounds are divided by imaginary lines into sections, 

 each devoted to a single family of woody plants, and arranged 

 in sequence according to the natural system of Bentham and 

 Hooker. Within the limits of the family it is intended to group 

 the trees and shrubs about the buildings chiefly for artistic 

 landscape-effect. Naturally, development in this part of the 

 Garden must be slow. None of the good trees or shrubs 

 originally on the grounds will be disturbed, but all new plant- 

 ing will be made to accord with the new plans. Of trees and 

 shrubs 276 species, in forty-five families, are now growing on 

 the grounds. 



In the north-west angle of the campus, and on the lower 

 level, about two and one-half acres have been devoted to the 

 herbaceous garden. It has four parts: (1) the systematic sec- 

 tion, (2) the ecological section, (3) the greenhouses, (4) the 

 propagating garden. 



A systematic section must always form the centre of any 

 complete botanic garden, for name and relationships are to 

 botanists practically the most important things about a plant. 

 The accompanying plan sufficiently shows the arrangement of 

 this section, which follows the system of Bentham and Hooker, 

 and aims to illustrate the systematically important families and 

 genera, not of New England alone, but of the world. It now 

 contains, along with the ecological section, more than 1,200 

 species, in seventy-eight families. 



For the many plants which will not grow in open beds because 

 they are fitted to a different situation, and that the principles of 

 their adaptation to their particular habilats may be shown, it 

 is necessary to supply those habitats. For this reason we have 

 the ecological divisions. The pond is well stocked with water- 

 plants selected to show the different ways in which plants over- 

 come the drawbacks of that mode of life. A bog is being pre- 

 pared for bog and marsh forms. The rockery is completed and 

 well stocked with alpine and other rock-dwelling species. Be- 

 hind the greenhouses a grove of native trees and shrubs has 

 been started in which the shade-loving plants are to be placed. 

 Desert plants will have a place on the sunny bank near the 

 rockery, and strand plants will ultimately be present also. In 

 addition to the ecological groups, there are important prin- 

 ciples, needing illustration, of adaptation to particular modes 

 of nutrition, exposure to light, the climbing habit, protection, 

 movements, locomotion (dissemination and pollen-transfer), 

 etc. For these, and for illustrating principles of form and color, 

 a series of beds will be made along the space reserved for the 

 purpose west of the rockery. An economic section has not 

 yet been arranged for, though in a complete botanic garden it 

 should be present. The shrubs which have a place in the 

 herbaceous section are all of special educational interest. 



The greenhouses stand in a sheltered corner with a high 

 terraced bank on the north and east. They are a gift to the 

 garden from Mr. E. H. R. Lyman in memory of his mother. 

 They are built and equipped in the most thorough and modern 

 manner. Their divisions are, of course, primarily climatic, 

 but within each there is an attempt at an ecological arrange- 

 ment. The Warm Temperate House (18 by 42 feet, inside 

 measurement) contains, in addition to plants proper to that 

 climate, a raised tank, eight feet square, in which principal 

 types of water-plants are constantly growing, and a grotto or 

 rock-work, over which water is always trickling, for Liver- 

 worts and similar amphibious forms. The Tropical House 

 (18 by 35 feet) contains special collections of Orchids, Begonias 

 and Ferns, with other smaller tropical types. The Palm House 

 (50 by 35 by 25 feet high) is the best furnished and most attrac- 

 tive of the range. Its chief feature is the great central bed in 

 which selected types of larger tropical vegetation — Palms, 

 Bamboos, Figs, Dracaenas, Musas, Crotons, Aroids, Ferns — 

 are growing directly in the earth, and form a jungle instructive 

 of many principles of adaptation. The great success of this 

 bed illustrates the value of planting out large plants wherever 

 possible. Other collections in this house are the climbers, 

 Nepenthes, Bromeliads, all chosen for principles which they 

 illustrate. The Acacia and Cactus House (17 by i8>< feet) is 

 filled with forms to show relations to the desert habit. The 

 Cool Temperate House (i8j£ by 33 feet) contains forms of our 

 own latitudes, and in it large quantities of materials are raised 

 for elementary instruction. In it also is another tank, a group 



