232 PARKS AND PLEASTJRE-GROTTNDS. 



which, during the last century, has burned so brightly, 

 and has shed so brilliant light on the science of 

 method, as applicable to the natural sciences in gen- 

 eral. They have stimulated the search for plants 

 abroad, and promoted their diffusion at home ; and 

 they have facilitated, in a greater or less degree, the 

 inspection, and so have extended the knowledge, of 

 the vegetable system of our globe, the individual 

 members of which the wise and beneficent Creator 

 has endowed with constitutional peculiarities suited to 

 every habitable region of the earth, and has fitted, either 

 directly or indirectly, to house, clothe, and feed the infi- 

 nite variety of animal life to be found on its surface. 



To regard botanic gardens merely as receptacles for 

 objects which are the materials of botanical classifica- 

 tion, is to place them much below their proper sphere, 

 and to make them representatives of human systems, 

 rather than of that vast order of vegetable being estab- 

 lished by the great Creator. How far many of these 

 institutions have risen above their lower, and ascended 

 toward their higher and more legitimate position, must 

 be left to be ascertained by actual inspection. Doubt- 

 less, botanic gardens have considerable difficulties to 

 contend with, and, from a variety of circumstances, 

 are occasionally liable to stagnate. They require 

 abundant liberality on the part of the patrons, wisdom 

 and science on that of the directors, and great dili- 

 gence, some versatility and activity of mind, and en- 

 tire consecration of time and attention in the curators. 

 Perhaps it is not often that all these requisites are 

 found in combination, and the want of one or other of 

 them may partly account for the inferiority in those 

 gardens which occasionally exists. It is not our 



