FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR. 
SUBMITTED TO THE TRUSTEES JAN. 13, 1904. 
To the Board of Trustees of the Missouri Botanical Garden: 
The following report on the Missouri Botanical Garden 
and the School of Botany therewith connected is respect- 
fully submitted in compliance with the rules of the Board. 
As was done with my tenth report,* this, which marks the 
passage of another convenient period of time, is made to 
present a resumé of progress. 
Briefly stated, the broad purposes of the founder of the 
Garden, as indicated in his will,f were to maintain an 
attractive and instructive garden easily accessible to the 
public; to secure its utilization for research in botany, 
horticulture, vegetable pathology and allied sciences by 
equipping it with herbarium, library and laboratory con- 
veniences; to educate capable gardeners ; and to promote 
a general knowledge of botany, both pure and applied. 
For the furtherance of these purposes, the Board of 
Trustees, on its organization, adopted the following general 
rules t for the guidance of the Director in planning and 
carrying out the work intrusted to bim: — 
1. To continue or even augment the present ornamental features of 
the garden. 
2. To add to its botanical usefulness and interest by the introduction 
as opportunity offers of plants representative of the American flora, so 
that, other things being equal, these shall be largely represented and may 
even preponderate outside of the greenhouses, giving, then, in the 
garden, an epitome of the leading characteristics of our native flora. 
3. To carry into execution, as rapidly as possible, a system of correctly 
naming and labeling all plants in the garden with the exception of such 
* Rept. Mo. Bot. Gard. 103 12. 
+ Rept. Mo. Bot. Gard. 1 : 29. — See also Popular Science Monthly. 62 : 
193. 
t Rept. Mo. Bot. Gard. 1398. 
(13) 
