Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-02-12
PHILIPPINE BOTANY
GARDENS OF NATIVE PLANTS TO
BE ESTABLISHED IN ISLANDS.
Classification Needed Of the Flora of
the NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
Vegetation.
From the Manila Review of Trade.

The principal object or establishing ma
tional botanical gardens in the Philippines
is the advancement of the agricultural In
terests of the islands. Every economic
plant, tree or vegetable Of the islands. or
that the islands are capable of producing,
should be grown in them. Other purposes
would. of course, be served by such an I'M
dertaking. From botanical standpoint
they would be the means Of throwing much
light upon tropical vegetation in general.
and the flora Of the archipelago in partic-
ular. From landscape point of view they
would not alone show the beauty of all the
finest forms of tropical vegetation, but
would arrange the latter in such a way as
to create some fine examples Of tropical
scenery. AS we will have to deal with
class Of vegetation for the most part I'M
like our own. and under a tropical climate,
II would be understood that the laying out
of these gardens must vary from the ordi-
nary style adopted in public gardens in
temperate regions.
On this account the tropical gardens here
outlined for the insular bureau Of agricul-
ture will differ in some respects from the
gardens of the United States. Before en-
tering upon the subject, however, we will
touch briefly upon our gardens at home,
when the necessity of carrying out the
work on somewhat different lines will be-
come more apparent.
Glasses Of Gardens.
The public gardens Of the United States
may be divided into three classes:
The first includes our parks and squares
intended for recreation
The second includes those gardens at
tached to our colleges, where the plants
are arranged in their natural orders for
the purpose Of study
The third includes the botanical gardens
OF rev or our large cities, where the or
~
carried out.
We see then, that the first are pleasure
resorts, the second for study and the third
give scope for study and have also The ~
namental feature developed. In foundinp
the new gardens especially If they are to
De iocated near large centers of population
the ornamental feature must be largely de-
Veloped. The mass of the people. who may
not be given to the study of botany. and for
Whom the economic value of plants may
not have much interest, can keenly appre-
cate what Is done for them in ornamental
gardening, and the more this is carried out
the more popular such places become TAX
ing this into consideration in the LAYING
out Of these gardens the landscape feature
should be Kept in view throughout
Philippine Plants.
When we consider that our knowledge of
the plants of the archipelago is very mea-
ger 1t would be Of the greatest advantage
that systematic classification of the flora
should be entered upon. All the important
plants should be grouped in their respective
natural order, where their Individual habits
OF growth could be noted and their econom-
1c values determined. From a scientific
point Of view this would be most interest
Ing and materially aid in the advancement
OF our knowledge of industrial plants of
the tropics.
Taking also into consideration that these
islands have almost unlimited abundance
and and variety Of vegetable products. and that
hitherto little or no attention has been paid
to the utilizing of these resources the adj
visibility will at once be seen of having a
section of the gardens devoted to the
growth of purely economic plants so that
we may be able to find out the agricultural
products that can be grown profitably in
the islands. The Importance of the work to
be carried out in this section cannot we'll
be overestimated when we know that cari-
talists are only waiting to be enlightened
upon these matters before entering upon
large Industrial enterprises.
NO hard and fast lines can be drawn sep
aratfng these sections, and, in consequence,
some plants will be found in all the first
botanic interest will be a feature of the
second, while what is of much value in
dustr1ally will be the important point about
the third. In addition to the above there
must be added a propagating section which,
In the operation Of the other sections, will
be indispensable.
Landscape Features.
Too much thought cannot be given to the
landscape work of our ornamental garden
ing; especially If it is situated near a large
city 1t will naturally be looked upon as the
best effort put forth in this direction by the
insular bureau Of agriculture. Many of its
features will be copied, and II these are de-
fective the errors will be reproduced in
other places. 1t WILL in a way, lay the
fashion for others to follow. If the public
garden Of large city Is laid out on wrong
principles the majority of the surrounding
private gardens will show similar defects,
and vice versa.
Generally speaking, there are two schools
Of gardening; the artificial and the natural.
The geometrically designed plots fronting
many Of the buildings of the Pan-American,
with terraces, statuary and vases; the NAL
tese gardens, with their straight paths and
rectangular borders; the Japanese system
Of dwarfing; the old Dutch style Of forming
fantastic figures in their trees and hedge
rows-are all expressions of the artificial
style. The natural system Of landscape
gardening Is directly the opposite Of this,
and is a reproduction of choice bits Of nat.
ural scenery. In the one, the work of man