Future
Botanical gardens are still being built, such as the first botanical garden in Oman, which will be one of the largest gardens in the world. Once it is completed and will house the first large-scale cloud forest in a huge glasshouse. There has been a remarkable development of botanical gardens in China over recent years including the Hainan Botanical Garden of Tropical Economic Plants South China Botanical Garden at Guangzhou, the Xishuangbanna Botanical Garden of Tropical Plants and the Xiamen Botanic Garden but in developed countries many have closed for lack of financial support, this being especially true of botanical gardens attached to universities.
Botanical gardens have always responded to the interests and values of the day. If a single function were to be chosen from the early literature on botanical gardens it would be their scientific endeavour and, flowing from this, their instructional value. In their formative years botanical gardens were gardens for physicians and botanists but then they progressively became more associated with ornamental horticulture and the needs of the general public. It is by the publications coming out of herbaria and similar facilities that the scientific reputation of a botanical garden is now judged, not by its living collections. The interest in economic plants now has less relevance, and the concern with plant classification systems has all but disappeared, while a fascination with the curious, beautiful and new seems unlikely to diminish.
In recent times the focus has been on creating an awareness of the threat to ecosystems from human overpopulation and its consequent need for biological and physical resources. Botanical gardens provide an excellent medium for communication between the world of botanical science and the general public. Education programs can help the public develop greater environmental awareness by understanding the meaning and importance of ideas like conservation and sustainability.
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“Self-kindled every atom glows,
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)