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expeditions to various parts of the New and Old World were mounted. Almost
every voyage had botanists along with the mission of discovering
new and useful plants for the country sponsoring the expedition. These
botanists expanded the knowledge of plants by bringing back living and dried
specimens for the botanical gardens. At the gardens, new types of endeavors
were fostered--the science of classification was given stimulus and support;
interest in better methods of growing the plants and caring for them gave
impetus for the science of horticulture. The basic functional aspects of
plant growth began with fertilizer experiments in botanic gardens, and in a
small garden in Brno (formerly Brunn), Czechoslovakia, the science of genetics
was born with the work of Gregor Mendel.

Slowly these gardens added other functions. The first efforts in
education were probably in the development of apprentice gardeners. There
was a need for a staff to maintain the plants in the individual gardens, and
to train them, the older gardeners took in young men to learn the intricacies
of plant care. From such beginnings, more formalized instruction grew and
with this, came the first relations with the universities where all the sciences
were, at various periods over the last two hundred years becoming established.
It is not uncommon today to find that graduate students in botany do much of their research on plants at related (formally or informally) botanical gardens. This is more true in Europe than in the United
States, though there are several universities with formal ties to large
botanic gardens in this country.

In the United States, without royalty, a few wealthy private individuals
established a small number of botanic gardens. These institutions, while
extremely productive in days before taxation took away their sources of income,
have fallen on rocky times today. Most of the botanic gardens in this country
are privately endowed, and without the recourse to public funds, cannot main-