ARBORETA AND BOTANICAL GARDENS IN THE FIELD OF PLANT SCIENCES AND HUMAN WELFARE

Abstract

THE BOTANIC GARDENS and arboretums are a natural meeting ground for science, history, art and culture in general; yet their basic importance to the broad field of plant sciences seems to have been over-shadowed by a host of circumstances in recent years. Plant science research in certain specific fields has been of a nature which demands that the scientist know more and more about fewer and fewer plants. More than ever before our plant scientist is delving into research on new plants. Through rumor, search of old literaure, mass chemical analysis of plants, and ideas inspired by worldwide travel the botanic garden is increasingly more called upon to supply basic information about plants for the general public, the hobbyist, the professional, the industrialist, the technical laboratory, the plant scientist, the home gardener, and the newspaper. Upon this point I would wish to say that the service of a botanical garden called on to give professional opinion, advice, information and service as well as to answer the old questions is the name of that does it come and how do you grow it, is usually given free of charge. At most, this service frequently goes along with the benefits of taking out a 5or 10dollar annual membership, a contribution which scarcely pays for the member's servicin,g alone, much less for the time of some academically trained person to give a professional answer which may be the result of several hours' or days' research through the literature. May I merely pose the thought that if these services of the botanic garden and its recognized professional staff were paid for on the same basis that comparable professional advice, opinion, information and service is given by the medical doctor, the lawyer, the engineering consulting company, the professional art appraiser or the landscape architect, then perhaps the botanic garden, the botanist and the plant taxonomist would be looked upon as a highly respected addition to the community. Furthermore, the botanic garden more than likely could afford to hire an extra gardener to make the garden more attractive to the visitor. The economic plant which was formerly grown and studied at the botanical garden has now been turned over to the experiment station and the chemist, where again the hand of the highly specialized is in demand. The economic plant, as usually referred to, is one which produces food or medicine, or other industrially useable product. We are all familiar with the fact that most of the economic plants were originally introduced and distributed to the other parts of the world through arboreta and botanic gardens. That is still going on today and no doubt will always continue to be an important function of theirs all over the world. I think, however, that we should revise our thoughts about economic plants. Statistics prove beyond doubt that the status of ornamental plants needs to be elevated to a position equal with that of Economic Plants -for that is what they are! Therefore, every arboretum and botanic garden is the potential source of new economic plants which eventually work their way into the trade and become that much more bread and butter to the nursery and cut-flower industry. The floriculturist and the horticulturist have become concerned with bigger and better-grown, relatively few flowers and plants which can be mass produced most economically for mass public consumption through high-pressure advertising. Far be it from me to say that the arboretum and botanic garden cannot find or produce and publicize new and highly desirable plants for the trade. It is being done every day and no doubt will always continue. I do think that with a few exceptions far too little credit has been given to the responsible gardens for the hundreds of plants which they have introduced into the trade and which today help to pay the income taxes of thousands of nurserymen and florists, horticulturists and floriculturists. The nurseryman has learned that it is easier and far more economical to mass produce a relatively few plants than to deal in great quantities of species. The more progressive nurserymen of this country are working closely with the arboreta and botanical gardens and, I might say, do fully realize the value of these institutions. That value, I believe, centers around several theories about the future of ornamental horticulture: A.-Fads in flowers (and plants) are and can be as changeably exciting as fads in the clothing industry. B.-Although mass-produced plants of relatively monotonous variety will continue to form the bulk of the initial landscaping of newly constructed homes, the demands of the novice home gardener, as he becomes acquainted with the fascination of home gardening, become more that of the connoisseur and he wants something different from that in his neighbor's garden. C.-Home gardening is America's No. 1 hobby. Hobbies mean collections and collections lead to the unusual and different. Therefore, the nurseryman who can qualify with these plant materials will increasingly more be sought out by the gardening public. The nurseryman's best source of the unusual is the botanic garden. The landscape architect, formerly a good gardener, has become involved with drawing board design and mass-produced gardens to keep up with