20 ESTABLISHMENT OF A NATIONAL BOTANIC GARDEN. 



The function of this committee has been to standardize the nomen- 

 clature of these many plants to facilitate dealing with them in the 

 horticultural trades, and in working on that subject we have been 

 very strongly impressed with the need of a central clearing house 

 where plants can be positively identified and attached to their cor- 

 rect names. There are facilities for this through the great herbarium 

 of the Department of Agriculture. But the use merely of printed 

 description and dried specimens is not completely adequate for pur- 

 poses of identification ; and when it comes to the horticultural varie- 

 ties, which are constantly multiplying, not only is the nomenclature 

 much more uncertain but there is lacking the means of identification 

 and of settling what the thing is which has the qualities that make it 

 worth while to give it a new name and to establish its identity in 

 commerce. Those difficulties can only be met by having specimens of 

 these plants growing where the identification can be complete and 

 they can be carefully studied. Of course, you run into constantly 

 multiplying varieties, and while some of them may appear without 

 essential distinction, without value, still many of them prove to have 

 distinctions of extreme importance such as Mr. Fairchilcl pointed 

 out in regard to certain economic plants. A mere difference in 

 strain in the pear tree makes it resistant to the blight ; and in regard 

 to the ornamental plants for landscape work and gardens you get 

 differences in variety which are sometimes very important distinc- 

 tions. They are, botanically, not great, but for the purpose of the 

 actual use of the plant they become extremely important ; and a place 

 of sufficient area to grow these many varieties, with positive identifi- 

 cation, is necessary. 



The Chairman. Mr. Fairchilcl spoke of various varieties of the 

 species being discovered, or rather new varieties appearing among 

 plants all the time. 



Mr. Olmsted. Yes; new varieties are being developed partly by 

 mere discovery, by accident, and also by deliberate experiment in 

 hybridizing. 



The Chairman. I mean, are new varieties appearing in wild life 

 among plants spontaneously, by evolutionary processes, or otherwise, 

 by natural selection? 



Mr. Olmsted. I think that Mr. Fairchild or Mr. Coville can give 

 you a better scientific answer than I can. I could hazzard an opinion 

 on that subject, but I think you had better go to an authority on that 

 subject. 



Mr. Pell. You think that as a national function this clearing gar- 

 den, so to speak, should be here at Washington and ought to be a 

 national matter? 



Mr. Olmsted. It seems to me decidedly so. An immense amount 

 of help has been given on these various subjects by local institu- 

 tions. An immense amount, of course, has been done by Dr. Britton's 

 institution in Xew York and by the Arnold Arboretum at Boston. 

 Lipsky. a Russian scientist, has said, the most valuable one in the 

 world, the one that has done the most, has been the garden at Kew, 

 which is a national institution of Great Britain. I think it is ex- 

 tremely unlikely that we could get the thing taken care of by j)urely 

 voluntary cooperative action. There are so many interests concerned 

 each one of which has only a relative!} 7 small interest in the whole 



