BOTANIC GARDENS. 



231 



soiled and tarnished. We should be disposed to re- 

 commend that, in such gardens, a plain, quiet style 

 of beauty should be aimed at'; but that it should be 

 elaborated, and kept up with a rigid and pervading 

 neatness. 



Note. — Nothing could be better said, on such a 

 subject. — Ed. 



Sect. III. — Botanic Gardens. 



Botanic gardens, both in their present dedication to 

 scientific purposes, and in the economical uses to 

 which they are probably destined to be applied, may 

 be regarded as among the most important public gar- 

 dens in this country. They are intended, primarily, 

 to contain general collections of plants, both native 

 and exotic, both hardy and requiring protection, and 

 particularly those species which, from their possessing 

 moderate ornamental qualities, are not likely to be 

 cultivated in common gardens. In the neighborhood ' 

 of medical schools, they are of great utility, as pre- 

 senting systematic arrangements, in a living state, of 

 the plants employed in materia medica. They are 

 also likely to become highly beneficial by forming 

 collections of vegetable substances adapted for food, 

 and used in the arts and manufactures, though this is 

 a purpose to which they are only beginning to be 

 applied. On these grounds, botanic gardens can meet, 

 the demands of the most rigid utilitarian. To persons 

 of a scientific turn of mind, and of refined under- 

 standing, they possess a very high interest. They 

 have done much to feed with oil the lamp of botany, 



