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A special problem may be encountered in attempting to maintain collections of closely related species of plants in botanical gardens over several generations. This arises from the breakdown of normal ecological barriers to hybridization. Although first generation interspecific hybrids are usually obvious, intraspecific crosses may not be, and introgression can produce subtle variations that are not easily recognized.

The problem of labelling and record keeping for field grown plants can become serious. Support for botanical gardens is often inadequate to hire the help needed to keep the specimens labelled and the records properly filed.

In most countries, botanical gardens formerly were the institutions in charge of introduction and spread of all types of plants, including those of commercial or food-producing interest as well as those of floricultural or other horticultural value. These institutions, at least in the United States, are today more likely concerned only with a relatively few of those plants of commercial or food producing importance. However, to make this generalization is to oversimplify the functions of botanical gardens, both public and private. Many of the larger institutions are interested in the distribution and classification of wild plants, both at home and abroad. They form a network of institutions that are concerned with inventories of the world's plant resources. The botanical gardens and allied museums (herbaria) exist either independently, or more frequently, in conjunction with some large university where botany is taught as a major scientific discipline. Through