Botanical garden, also called botanic garden, originally, a collection of living plants designed chiefly to illustrate relationships within plant groups. In modern times, most botanical gardens are concerned primarily with exhibiting ornamental plants, insofar as possible in a scheme that emphasizes natural relationships. Thus, the two functions are blended: eye appeal and taxonomic order. Plants that were once of medicinal value and extremely important in early botanical gardens are now chiefly of historical interest and are not particularly represented in contemporary collections. A display garden that concentrates on woody plants (shrubs and trees) is often referred to as an arboretum. It may be a collection in its own right or a part of a botanical garden.
A major contemporary objective of botanical gardens is to maintain extensive collections of plants, labeled with common and scientific names and regions of origin. Plant collections in such gardens vary in number from a few hundred to several thousand different kinds, depending on the land area available and the financial and scholarly resources of the institution.
As world populations become more urbanized, botanical gardens are increasingly recognized as among the important cultural resources of industrialized nations. Botanical gardens offer the city dweller part of the natural environment that he no longer has access to; furthermore, they offer a mental escape from population pressure and suggest new interests and hobbies having to do with the natural world.
