62 J. H. MAIDEN. 



a botanic garden on a wholesale scale, and anything in the 

 way of a "crop," or a large quantity of indigenously grown 

 material, would have to be sought elsewhere. 



Phyto-chemistry will, after the preliminary researches 

 of the laboratory of the botanic garden, be developed in 

 two directions — 



1. Economic or technological, where the raw material 



or its constituents is sought to be applied to the 

 service of man. 



2. Purely chemical, and in these researches the botanist 



and chemist may part company. 



The phrase, comparative phyto-chemistry, refers to the 

 connection between the natural relationship of plants and 

 their chemical composition. In the old days the Linnean 

 system of classification sufficed ; it was superseded by a 

 so-called natural system which at least attempted to group 

 plants according to natural affinities. For one hundred 

 years system has superseded system, and modifications 

 have been proposed to the latest, all to record access of 

 knowledge of characters and properties of plants. At no 

 period in our history has the assistance of chemistry been 

 brought more to the aid of this work than during the last 

 few years. 



We are very ignorant, even yet, as to the true affinities 

 of most plants, and there is a great amount of research to 

 be done in regard to the interesting vegetation of this land 

 of ours. Every observation, no matter how simple, care- 

 fully recorded, is a contribution towards this end. 



Plants are no longer classified according to a single 

 character; every science, every observation is laid under 

 contribution, and the skill and experience of the systematist 

 are shown in the way he co-ordinates all the data, from 

 whatever source they may emanate, for the purposes of an 

 improvement, maybe a small one, of the grand scheme of 

 classification to which allusion has been made. 



