io BOTANIC GARDENS. 



The Buitenzorg Garden is situated within a few degrees of the 

 equator, and by reason of the elevated areas included within its 

 different divisions furnishes suitable conditions for the growth 

 in the open air of plants native to latitudes as high as forty or 

 fifty degrees. The luxuriance of the growth of plants in the 

 lower tropical area niay be imagined when it is stated that the 

 average temperature is 85° Fahrenheit, and the yearly rainfall 

 amounts to twelve feet. Of the eleven hundred acres available 

 for the purposes of the garden, an area of about one hundred 

 and seventy-three acres is devoted to experiments with cultivated 

 plants, one hundred and forty-eight to the botanic garden proper, 

 seventy-five to a mountain garden at an elevation of about seven 

 thousand feet, and the remainder is comprised in a mountain 

 forest. The laboratories are most excellently equipped for inves- 

 tigation in forestry, agricultural chemistry, and pharmacology,be- 

 sides the main divisions of the pure science. In addition to a very 

 complete library and herbarium, the administration has at its 

 service a lithographic establishment for the preparation of illus- 

 trations for its publications. It would be difficult to overestimate 

 the value of the results accomplished by the various divisions of 

 this institution, or to predict its f uture performances. By reason 

 of its facilities and resources it has become a Mecca for the bota- 

 nists of the world. 



The foundation of a botanic garden in the United States dates 

 from that of John Bartram in Philadelphia in 1728, which is still 

 preserved in a modified form. Botany has been given an impor- 

 tant place in the college curriculum in America scarcely rnore 

 than sixty years. In comparatively recent years a few gardens 

 have come into existence, nearly all of which are still in a state of 

 rapid development. During this period of flux they have been 

 a,ble only to afford facilities for general elementary instruction, 

 and to rnake possible original work in the classification of native 

 plants — a line of research which has been carried on more or less 

 steadily since the earlier settlements were made on this side of 

 the Atlantic. At the present time a few have begun to offer 

 opportunities for research in the more important branches of 

 botanical science. Among these may be mentioned the Missouri 

 Botanical Garden at St. Louis, connected with the Washington 

 University, the Botanical Garden and Arnold Arboretum of Har- 

 vard University, and the Botanic Garden of New York, now in 

 process of formation and to be connected with Columbia Uni- 

 versity. 



The Botanic Garden of Harvard University was established 

 in 1805. It has an area of seven acres, on which are cultivated 

 about seven thousand species of plants, principally native. For 

 this reason it finds but one greenhouse necessary. The garden 



