12 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 



which some 1,475 packets of seeds and 100 living plants 

 have been received. About 3,025 packets of seeds of our 

 own collection have been distributed to these and other 

 institutions to which the Garden stood indebted. A con- 

 siderable number of purchases have been made, also, and I 

 was able to secure from the dry district of Texas, Arizona 

 and California a number of representatives of the more 

 characteristic yuccas, agaves and cacti of those regions. 



The average number of gardeners and laborers employed 

 has been 42, and the pay-roll for the year amounts 

 to $1(5,582.92. While the number of improvements un- 

 dertaken in 1892 is not as large as in 1890 and 1891, con- 

 siderable advance has been made in this direction. These 

 improvements have been reported in detail in my reports 

 to the Board each month, but by way of summary it may 

 be said here that about 500 lineal feet of granitoid walk 

 was laid in front of the new Herbarium Building on Tower 

 Grove avenue, and the ground about the building and 

 along this walk was suitably graded and seeded to grass or 

 sodded; about 4,600 square feet of sod was laid and some 

 4,200 square feet of ground spaded and seeded to lawn 

 grass; about 1,800 running feet of drain and conduit pipe 

 was laid, and the necessary surface connections made; 

 5,900 square feet of walk was substantially made, most of it 

 consisting of very old walks of defective construction; 

 about 6,000 running feet of brick edging was relaid along 

 the walks ; some 2,000 running feet of board fence was 

 rebuilt about the pasture ; two small rockeries were built 

 near the Linnean House ; and a new boiler has been placed 

 for the Succulent House. Repairs of considerable extent 

 have been made on the greenhouses, the farm-house, and 

 the Lodge. Several hundred additional metallic tree labels 

 with raised letters have been placed, and several thousand 

 celluloid labels, marked with indelible ink, have been 

 brought into use in the greenhouses and elsewhere, those 

 used in the wild garden being wired to long iron rods 

 thrust deeply into the soil, beyond danger of displacement 



