226 



PARKS AND PLEASURE-GROUNDS. 



indeed, that they would promise more, in this respect, 

 than places set apart for the common resort of the 

 citizens ; and yet this promise has been most strangely 

 unfulfilled and neglected. Not to speak of universi- 

 ties, some of which have their botanic gardens, there 

 are, for example, around Edinburgh, six foundation 

 schools, or hospitals as they are there called, in which 

 children of certain classes of the community are boarded 

 and educated till they are" of suitable age to go into 

 trades or professions. Some of these institutions oc- 

 cupy magnificent buildings, and have almost princely 

 revenues ; all of them are well endowed ; and yet, 

 while they are surrounded by grounds more or less 

 tolerably laid out, not one of them possesses a named 

 collection of plants ; nor, so far as we know, is any 

 regular course of instruction in regard to natural ob- 

 jects maintained within them. "We can not think that 

 this state of things, subsisting under the direction of 

 numerous well-informed and intelligent men, is very 

 much to the credit of the science and the enterprise 

 of Modern Athens. 



"We would deem it highly advisable to attach a 

 garden of two or three acres to the normal schools pro- 

 vided by government for the improvement of teach- 

 ing. These, under proper management, would enable 

 the pupil-teachers to carry back to their native homes 

 or future places of labor, a correct nomenclature of 

 plants and much other useful information respecting 

 them, but little known in secluded districts. In refer- 

 ence to these matters, the progress made in Ireland is 

 much in advance of that on this side of the channel. 

 The agricultural seminaries at G-lasnevin and Temple- 



