x is 
FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR. 17 
In 1898 the number of distinct species and varieties 
cultivated was found by inventory to be 8,009.* At the 
end of each subsequent year those reported as dropped 
from cultivation and those known to have been added have 
been footed up, and the net gain for the year noted.f 
For 1903, the records show a loss of 521 and an addition 
of 1,573, or a net increase for the year of 1,052. 
It is difficult, however, to keep close track of the 
annuals dropped from cultivation, or to get gardeners 
always to report the loss of what are intended to be per- 
manent plants, so that a quinquennial or other inventory 
is essential for the periodical correction of the records. 
Such an inventory, taken at the end of 1903, shows that 
11,357 species and varieties are now actually in cultivation 
at the Garden. This number is 1,246 less than that given 
by the records (12,603) and even 184 less than the sum- 
mary of records gave at the end of 1902, —the difference 
between the recorded and inventoried totals representing 
the accumulated errors of the records for five years. The 
verified increase of 3,348 shown by comparing the inven- 
tory summary of 1898 with that of 1903 is 41.8 per cent 
of the total at the end of 1898, or an average of about 8 
per cent for each of the last five years. The average 
number for the past five years is 9,683, or almost double 
the number estimated to be in cultivation in 1895.§ The 
diagram on the following page shows the yearly growth in 
species and varieties cultivated. 
As in previous years, plants and seeds which could be 
spared have been sent to exchanging institutions and to 
investigators who have needed them for purposes of study, 
this distribution for 1903 reaching 506 plants and 95 
packets of seeds, collectively valued at $92.65. Surplus 
* Rept. Mo. Bot. Gard. 103 15. 
+ Rept. Mo. Bot. Gard. 11313. 12:13. 13318. 143 15. 
t Rept. Mo. Bot. Gard. 14315. 
§ Rept. Mo. Bot. Gard. 73 14. 
