Assisi Nature Council The Garden. Articles. Article 1. Botanic Gardens: A Tribute to the Role of Beauty in Conservation of our

The instinct to cultivate is strong and independent of simple material necessity. Gardens and gardening are activities that, although associated with necessity, have given humanity centuries of pleasure. Botanic gardens, although mainly devoted to the acquisition and diffusion of knowledge, have a strong aesthetic element without which they wouldn't attract the wider public. Utility and Beauty Interaction between humans and plants cannot be reduced to mere economic expediency. Yet a more recent tendency to look for quantifiable use has reversed the ancient numinous look at life. An inhibition is caused by the sentiment of guilt, that if there’s no use for something there cannot be any justification for wanting it. We have not taken into account an important human element; the human perception of, and response to, the natural environment. We are rightly reminded that plant preservation is necessary for th