food, and with "better methods of cultivation, and 

 how great their influence throughout Europe was at 

 a time when, by four centuries of continuous and 

 desolating wars, its ancient civilization had been 

 swept away and it had been reduced almost to a 

 state of semi-barbarism, may be inferred from the 

 fact that the Cistercian monks had more than one 

 hundred of these establishments, or as I may appro- 

 priately call them botanic gardens, in England 

 alone. 



Important as these establishments were at that 

 period, they are not less important now in conse- 

 quence of the increased population of the globe. In 

 my youth the population of the earth was computed 

 to be 700 millions. It is now, that is, it was in 1890, 

 estimated at 1,487 millions, and statisticians say that 

 if it should increase hereafter at the same rate that it 

 has since the time of Marlborough, in the reign of 

 Queen Anne, it will be in 182 years from the 

 present time, 5,997 millions. One hundred and 

 eighty-two years is a comparatively short period 

 in the history of mankind, and the question arises 

 whether the Earth, at the expiration of that time; 

 will be able to supply such a population with food, 

 raiment and fuel. The statisticians say that it will, 

 if more efficient means are used for preserving the 

 animal and vegetable kingdom, and one obvious 

 means of doing so is the establishment of botanical 

 gardens, where the nature, growth, diseases, de- 

 velopment and distribution of plants can be care- 



