PARK AND CEMETERY. 
444 
USES AND AIMS OF BOTANICAL GARDENS 
The Roman gardens of early ages 
'Containing collections of medicinal 
plants were the forerunners of our 
modern botanic gardens; their collec- 
tions of medicinal plants were a regu- 
lar part of the monastic institutions 
of the middle ages, the plant extracts 
being used by the monks in their 
treatment of diseases. In the fifteenth 
and sixteenth centuries the univer- 
sities of northern Italy established 
medical botanic gardens, and used 
the plant material from the gardens 
in the lectures in the medical schools. 
The existing gardens of France, 
■Germany, Holland, and England were 
■established generally in connection 
with universities, during the sixteenth 
and seventeenth centuries. The pur- 
pose was generally for instruction in 
botany and materia medica. At the 
present time every European univer- 
sity has its botanic garden, and be- 
sides these, most of the European 
governments maintain one or more 
large gardens, among the largest of 
which are the Kew in England, Edin- 
burgh, Dublin, Dahlem near Berlin, 
Paris and Buitenzorg on the island 
•of Java, maintained by Holland. The 
university gardens are used for in- 
struction and for biological experi- 
ments; the government gardens for 
■experiment and the cultivation and 
improvement of plants from all parts 
of the world. 
In the United States the establish- 
ment of gardens came relatively late. 
The oldest surviving garden is that 
of Harvard University, begun in 1805. 
The second oldest is at the Michigan 
Agricultural College, begun in 1877, 
under the direction of Dr. W. J. Beal, 
under whose care it still remains. In 
the last quarter century seven gar- 
dens have been established, including 
the United States Government Gar- 
den at Washington, the Arnold Ar- 
boretum of Harvard, the Missouri, 
Smith College, Pennsylvania Univer- 
sity, California University, the New 
York, and Michigan University gardens. 
Botanical gardens of the present day 
are put to one or more of four uses : 
( 1 ) teaching, in which students are in- 
structed in the various orders and func- 
tions of plants; (2) scientific, in which 
the genetic relationship is studied and 
experimental work carried on; (3) eco- 
nomic, in which collections of medicinal 
and economic plants are made, and the 
effect on horticulture and agriculture is 
shown, and (4) esthetic and popularly 
educational, in which landscape effects 
are introduced. 
There is no question but what the 
botanic garden at the Michigan .Agri- 
cultural College fulfills all four of these 
functions. A very modest beginning 
was made in 1877, along a shady brook 
which runs across the college campus, 
and through the continuous effort of its 
founder. Dr. W. J. Beal, it has grown 
through successive years until it occu- 
pies about two acres, hardly any of the 
original soil or contour of the garden 
being left to testify to its original state. 
It contains about 2,200 different species 
of hardy herbs, shrubs, and other 
plants. The aim is to grow well a plat 
of each species two to six feet in diam- 
eter, that the botanist, the artist, the 
florist, may see how he likes the species. 
Here the farmer can compare some of 
the newer untried sorts of grasses or 
other forage plants by the side of his 
old favorites, or he can see behind a 
label containing the name of some weed 
pest that has lately found its way into 
his neighborhood. The bee-keeper looks 
for the plants and their names where 
honey is gathered in most abundance. 
The etomologist learns to look for cer- 
tain insects on the plants of a certain 
family or species. 
Many kinds of pretty wild plants are 
not known by people in general, espe- 
cially since the woods have been cut 
away or pastured and the swamps 
drained and placed under cultivation, or 
frequently burned over. The botanic 
garden furnishes these “unknown” 
t 
VIEWS IN BOTANICAL GARDEN OF MICHIGAN AGRICULTT’ RAL COLLEGE. 
Dr. W. .1, Heal in ('oreprrouiul. 
