December i, 1891.] 
THt TROf^OAL AQftJOULTURIST, 
387 
THE KOYAL, BOTANICAL GAEDENS, PERA- 
DENIYA, AS AN EDUCATIONAL 
INSTITUTION. 
In noticing the sums appropriated in the 
estimates of 1892 to the support of the beautiful 
Gardens at Peradeniya, of which Oeylon is so 
justly proud, we expressed regret that the extensive 
library, the herbarium and the museum of timber 
and other specimens should be separated by so 
considerable a distance from the chief city of the 
island, with its colleges and schools. This regret 
was felt in view ol the obstacles which the 
distance and the expenditure of time and money 
in travelling placed in the way of students 
desirous of availing themselves of the important 
and interesting aids to education connected with 
the Gardens, in addition to the education of the 
physical as well as the mental powers involved 
in wandering through the beautiful grounds and 
identifying, by means of the inscribed tablets, 
the numerous and varied plants indigenous to 
Ceylon, or introduced from so many countries and 
climes, — tropical, sub-tropical and even [temperate. 
We judged, and as it turns out rightly, that 
the Government and garden authorities were not 
only willing but anxious that all respectable persons, 
whose objects were bo7ia fide, should, on expressing 
their desire, have access to the books, the coloured 
drawings and the specimens of plants, timbers 
and other objects connected with or illustrative 
of the science of botany, collected at Peradeniya. 
Natives of the island and especially the class of 
European descendants who have advanced and are 
advancing so rapidly in recent years by means 
of the educational advantages placed within their 
reach by the liberality of Government, — and let 
us add the zeal of the various Christian bodies 
in our midst, — are, naturally, sensitive to the re- 
ception they meet with at the hands of Europeans 
and especially European officials. This sensitive- 
ness sometimes leads to misconstruction as to 
bearing and language and to offence being taken 
where none was meant. Officials pre-oocupied 
with work which it is their first duty to carry 
through may seem brusque, when they are merely 
anxious to economize valuable time. These re- 
marks apply to a communication which has 
reached us from a very estimable and learned 
Ceylonese, who is engaged in educational work in 
Connection with a high-class institution. We 
submitted his letter to Dr. Trimen, and, at that 
gentleman's instance, we publish it with the 
Director's reply addressed to ourselves. The 
incident is not to be regretted, seeing that 
it has drawn forth so explicit and satis- 
factory a statement corroborative of our pre- 
viously expressed opinion, that the Director of 
the Peradeniya Gardens is not only willing but 
anxious to aid those desirous of availing them- 
selves of the advantages to them as students, or (we 
doubt not) as persons desirous of adding to their stock 
of general information, — of the scientific literature 
and Museum collections collected in the Royal 
Botanical Gardens. Our correspondent wrote : — 
" I was delighted to read your leader of the 21st 
when speaking o£ the Supply Bill for 18i)2 you refer- 
red to the Botanic Garden at Peradeniya. You say ' a 
great means of education for the young and of infor- 
mation for students of more mature age is largely res- 
tricted in its usefulness" — owing to the distance of Pera- 
deniya from Colombo. Now, air, 1 have a real hardship 
to put before yon. I huve long been fall of botanical 
enthusiasm though not a professed botanist, and derive 
a groikt deal of pleasure fromj turning over botanical 
journal* and nmgaziuos. Now at Peradeniya there are 
of course these books. There is besides the vast and 
most interesting HvrlHi Mahlimfus, Well on going 
to the Museum and stating that I wished to see the 
library the Director left mo under the impression that 
1 was simply tolerated not welcomed there and 
I turned over the pages (if I even had the 
courage and audacity lo do such a daring thing) with 
the fear that I was making myself a uuiaauca 
to the learned Director. He seemed to think that 
there could be nothing in the library to interest the 
general reader, and that the collection of timbers 
would be all that I could possibly enjoy ! He little 
knew that it wastiZZ the other vxii/. Your acquaintance 
with the Director would perhaps lead you to quite 
another conclusion, and I hesitate therefore to send 
a communication direct for publication. All I wish 
therefore is to have it established that not only the 
beautiful garden ia made free of all who go there, 
but that those who wish to consult the journals and' 
books should be allowed free liberty to do so without 
feeling that they are in anybody's Vv ay and that their 
presence is more an imperlinence than anything else. 
I do not for one single moment ask that the 
Dhrector should be obhged to turn away from 
his duties to administer a botanical lecture, though 
should he only be willing to do it lie would be 
conferring an immense benefit on the rising gene- 
ration. It is not often that he will, have the oppor- 
tunity of thus supplementing the' labours of the 
botanical teachers in our colleges and schools. Let 
the museum be more than a collection of objects. 
Let it be a rich source of pleasure and instructioni 
I believe it was the fact that the Lady Principal of 
the Kandy Wesleyan Girls' School took her pupils 
to the Gardens and made the subject of Botany so 
real that secured such good results at the last Cam- 
bridge Local. 
" The Director's office and working room adjoins the 
Museum Library. (He has another room with his 
own private collection of botanical books to which 
of course the public have no right.) The floor too 
is (I believe) hoarded; and no doubt if a teacher, say, 
with his pupils goes to the Museum and introduces 
the treasures in the Library to her pupils, giving 
them a few hints here and there, he would feel that 
to a certain extent he would be distracting the 
learned Director in the next room. Can not some 
arrangement be made whereby this difSculty may be 
obviated ? Is it necessary that the library should be 
separated from the working room of the Director by 
only a wooden partition ? 
'•I beg on behalf of all lovers of nature and of 
the beautiful that you will give the subject a thought, 
and without any charge being made against the present 
learned Director of discourtesy that you will plead 
that every facility be given to people to make their 
researches in the records of the Museum Librarv, and 
even, wider proper safeguards, to have the opportunity 
of borrowing for a day or two any book from which 
they may like to make extracts. [Perhaps this latter 
may not be practicable.] 
"Excepting the Museum at Peradeniya there is 
no other place in the colony where botanical journals 
could be perused, and should the slightest (however 
unintentional) obstacle be put in the way of persons 
craving for botanical knowledge what a great hard- 
ship it must be !" 
Dr. Trimen's frank and satisfactory response is 
as follows : — 
"I am much indebted to you for forwarding to me 
your correspondent's letter, and must say at Onco 
that I feel greatly pained that he should have re- 
ceived such an impression as he describes from hia 
visit to Peradeniya. I hope and believe he stands 
alone in this, and am quite at a loss to understand 
how it came about. It must be surely unnecessary 
for mc tj say that everyone wishing to study at 
Peradeniya is not only free to do so, but very welcome 
and not the least " in the way." 
' Unfortunately I cannot clearly rcoal Mr. 's 
visit. I suppose I must have been pressed with the 
work when he came ; but even in that case, I am certain ' 
that whatever ho wished to see would have been freely ' 
placed at his disposal, He could not have made his. 
wants plain to me. 
