Tropical Botanic Gardens and Their Uses

Abstract

IF one casts a glance over the more modern botanical literature, it will become evident that special activity is being manifested in that department, which we may term, in accordance with the German usage, the biology of plants. The day has long passed since the eminence of a botanist depended on the number of plants—dried or otherwise—which he could recognise at sight. But it is not so long ago since exaggerated importance was attached to a minute and exhaustive knowledge of details of the internal structure of plants, although, fortunately, the practice did not last long enough, nor did it become sufficiently general, to render the mental burden so heavy as the load which the older systematists had to bear. It is clear, however, that in each instance the science passed, and indeed had inevitably to pass, through a similar phase. The facts must be accumulated before they can be grouped, or before sound general conclusions can be deduced from them. Of course, the processes of accumulation and deduction were not severed in point of time; but the success of the latter process depends largely upon the industry with which the first has been carried out. The practical results have culminated in the perception of the meaning of a “natural classification,” on the one hand, and in the evolution of a morphology which embraces and welds together the dry facts of pure anatomy into a consistent system, on the other.

Der Botanische Garten “’s Lands Plantentuin” 2 v. Buitenzorg auf Java.

Festschrift zur Feier seines 75 jährigen Bestchens. Mit 12 Lichtdruckbildern und 4 Plänen.

Eine Botanische Tropenreise, Indomalayische Vegetationsbilder und Reiseskizzen.

Von Prof. Dr. Haberlandt. Mit 51 Abbildungen.