FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR. 23 
curve for the entire period covered by records with the ex- 
ception of the aberrant year 1902. 
This diagram is interesting as showing the increased 
number of visitors during the open season, in comparison 
with the average for years prior to 1902; the great in- 
crease during the latter year, for which reasons were as- 
signed in my last report; the small but still noticeable 
effect produced by special attractions out of the spring or 
summer, as indicated by the slight rise in the curve for 
November, at which time a display was made of several 
thousand plants representing some 300 carefully selected 
and well-grown varieties of chrysanthemums; and the 
falling off of country visitors attracted by the St. Louis 
Fair in October, of whom, formerly, two or three 
thousand flocked to the Garden on a single day, when the 
weather was favorable. Except for the November aberra- 
tion, this curve for 1903 may be taken as a fair repre- 
sentation of the normal seasonal distribution of visitors, 
who reach their smallest number in the coldest month, 
February, gradually increase until August, when out-of- 
door life in this latitude is at its maximum — except for 
July, during which month the exodus from the city and 
the sense of heat discomfort are greatest, and come in 
lessening numbers as the cool weather of autumn sets in, 
the falling off being very rapid after the bedding plants 
have been destroyed by frost, usually late in October. 
The appended diagram summarizing the Sunday visitors 
shows once more very clearly the great fluctuation in num- 
bers from year to year and the consequent influence of the 
records for these two open Sunday afternoons on the totals 
for any given year. 
NATIVE PLANTS. 
When established, the new synoptical tract of some 
twenty acres, devoted exclusively to North American 
