Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 50.djvu/690

670 enlarged, that it now seems probable that five or six years' time will see illustrated by this collection all the great types of plant life throughout the world, all except eight of these types being represented among the plants native to North or South America. Already more than one hundred orders are represented, and here it must be clearly understood that no attempt has been made to show every species of plant. This would indeed be an impossibility! Not more than six or seven species of an order are given, but the collection thus illustrates a large proportion of the genera. Certain tablets, prepared for demonstration, exhibit a larger number of details than others; sometimes several species of a genus are shown, in order to emphasize the more or less strongly marked variation of certain characteristics, but in general the aim has been to show the typical species of different genera.

The three exhibition rooms are so arranged as to illustrate plant life in all its relations, from a biological point of view. The models are displayed in admirably constructed cases of plate glass and bear labels giving the names of the plants as well as other details in regard to them, thus offering every opportunity for study. The first room or hall, which one enters from the staircase, is intended to show plants in the following relations:

1. In relation to soil, water, air, heat, light, electricity, and gravitation.

2. In relation to insects and other animals by which plants are benefited.

3. In relation to insects and other animals by which plants are injured.

4. The relation of plants of the past to plants of the present time.

Here are also seen the plants used as forage.

The room on the left of this hall represents the Department of Economic Botany, Here we find illustrated plants in their relation to man—i. e., the plants used for shelter, clothing, and food; then those used for drugs, dyes, etc.; and here also are the plants of historic interest.

In the third and largest room the lower floor is devoted to flowering plants (by far the greater proportion of the collection), while the balcony contains the illustrations of cryptogams. In regard to the quality of the work, it is hardly possible to speak too highly. The mastery of color alone is marvelous, but when we appreciate the fact that the most minute detail of the tiniest flower, even to the starlike hairs on the sepal of a calyx, will bear the scrutiny of a microscope, words fail us in which to express our admiration for the creative power of these artists. The closer the study the more extraordinary seems the fact that the material employed for these models is glass! As in Nature no two flowers