230         BOTANY  IN  ITS  BEARINGS  ON  PHARMACY,  ETC. 
specimens  of  his  planting  which,  on  every  side,  stood  as  monuments  to 
his  memory.  The  only  specimen  of  spigeliaour  herbarium  contained  was 
gathered  there,  by  permission,  and  numerous  indigenous  plants,  not  found 
in  the  neighboring  flora,  there  had  a  dwelling  place.  This  garden  yet 
exists  in  private  hands,  but  it  has  long  ceased  to  be  a  teacher,  and,  so 
far  as  we  know,  it  has  no  successor.  A  city  of  600,000  inhabitants  with- 
out a  botanical  garden  !  Such  a  thing  in  Europe  is  unheard  of,  and  would 
not  be  understood.  It  is  true  our  professed  gardeners  have  gardens, 
some  of  them,  with  well  laid  lawns,  noble  evergreens,  exquisite  hedges, 
and  green -houses  stored  with  floral  beauties  ;  but  where  are  the  indige- 
nous annuals  or  perennial  herbaceous  plants  so  numerously  scattered  over 
our  country?  Where  can  we  go  as  students,  to  illustrate  the  natural 
orders. of  plants  in  a  living,  blooming  page,  where  side  by  side  the  several 
species  of  a  genus  may  be  examined  ?  Alas  !  nowhere,  in  this  vicinity, 
and,  unless  in  Prof.  Gray's  garden  at  Cambridge,  we  cannot  recall  a 
single  instance.  The  industrial  gardens  of  the  Shakers,  whose  efforts  are 
almost  solely  in  the  direction  of  medicinal  plants,  are  without  any  regard 
to  their  scientific  relationships. 
It  may  be  asked  of  what  use  are  botanical  gardens,  except  as  orna- 
mental appendages  to  a  great  city,  where  the  people  may  resort  to  pass 
au  idle  hour,  and  admire  the  exterior  beauty  ©f  flowers,  shrubs  and  trees  ? 
and  why  may  not  our  parks  be  botanical  gardens?  In  reply,  it  may  be 
said  that  they  should,  in  one  sense,  be  rendered  subservient  to  the  culture 
of  a  taste  for  botany.  All  such  trees  and  shrubs  as  are  available  in  these 
public  resorts  should  be  distinctly  and  permanently  labelled  with  the 
scientific  name,  and  at  least  one  common  name,  that  even  the  thought- 
less and  careless  may  glean  as  they  pass  ;  a  germ  of  earnest  action  might 
thus  be  awakened,  by  so  casual  an  opportunity  to  be  face  to  face  with  the 
names  of  these  mute  representatives  of  the  vegetable  kingdom,  in  the 
mind  of  some  youthful  Linnaeus  or  De  Candolle.  But  this  is  not  what  we 
are  aiming  at.  We  want  a  garden  where  plants  are  grown  under  the  au- 
spices of  a  scientific  director,  by  competent  gardeners, — not  for  sale,  not 
for  their  beauty  merely,  but  for  the  illustration  of  botanical  science  as  a 
field  of  study,  where,  on  fitting  occasions,  our  medical  and  pharmaceutical 
students  may  make  the  acquaintance  of  those  numerous  species  and  im- 
portant genera  on  which  the  sciences  of  medicine  and  pharmacy  so  largely 
rest, — where  the  advanced  scholars  of  our  public  and  private  schools  could 
resort  with  their  teachers  in  reasonable  numbers,  and,  under  proper  regu- 
lations, to  watch  the  evolution  of  plants  from  blooming  to  fruition;  and 
where  a  judicious  running  discourse,  in  connection  with  previous  studies, 
would  impress  an  interest  in  the  unseen  beauties  of  botany,  which,  more 
than  glaring  floral  colors,  will  retain  advocates  for  the  science. 
Our  country  is  rich  in  botanical  treasures  ;  its  indigenous  materia 
medica  is  extensive  and  important,  but  with  few  exceptions  the  market 
is  supplied  wholly  from  the  natural  growth  of  our  woods  and  uncultivated 
lands.    Already  some,  as  spigelia,  senega  and  serpentaria,  have  retired 
