BOTAXIC GARDEXS 7 



ical science. Instirutions of this character are generally under 

 the care of a somewhat independent staff of administration and 

 instruction and are supported by separate appropriation oren- 

 dowment. although they sustain a relation to the university 

 somewhat similar to that of the department or school to the 

 American university. 



The greater part of thehistory of the development of botany 

 lies within the botanical institutes of the gardens of Germany. 

 and prominent among those distinguished by the results they 

 have accomplished as well as their present activity maybemen- 

 tioned those of Munich. Wurzburg. Tiibingen. Gottingen and 

 Leipsic. 



In such institutions the actual number of growing plants is 

 comparatively small, but it consists of species which may be 

 of possible service in the solution of the problems under inves- 

 tigation. and only in the larger ones is an attempt made to il- 

 lustrate the principles of geographic botany. The actual area 

 enclosed rarely incfudes more than a few acres, and beside the 

 ground for growing plants it also furnishes the site for the 

 laboratories and otherfacilities which constitute an "institute". 

 Plate II. is a view of the botanical institute at Leipsic. which 

 at the present time occupies a prominent. if not the foremost 

 place in the amount of valuable results attained. 



The wisely-selected but not extravagantequipment, theease 

 with which skilled labor may be secured, the fixed and liberal 

 policy of the German state toward scientihc research, and the 

 accurate and skillful management of these institutes by the sci- 

 entists who have had them in charge from time to time. have 

 made them most powerful factors in pushing forward the fron- 

 tiers of knowledge of the biology of plants. Very naturally, 

 many of these gardens and institutes have become of great 

 direct and personal interest to the student of natural science. 

 not only because of their high efficiency. but also on account of 

 the historic value of certain features. In many instances the 

 material. perhaps the actual growing plants, upon whichepoch- 

 making investigations have been made. are still intact. Thus 

 at Munich is a very complete collection of cacti upon which 

 important work in the evolution of plant forms has been per- 



