14 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 
that with good management there will scarcely be a time 
during the year when one or more of these interesting 
plants cannot be found in bloom, while in the latter part of 
the winter a considerable number are open together. This 
collection will be extended considerably from year to year, 
my intention being to devote the greater part of this house 
to a varied collection of orchids. The Garden now has in 
cultivation 156 named species or varieties of greenhouse 
orchids, 93 of aroids, 65 of palms, 11 of cycads, 224 of 
foliage plants, 51 of Yuccas, Dracaenas, Furcraeas, etc., 
22 of Ficus, 194 of plants yielding useful products, 217 of 
plants cultivated for their flowers, 526 of succulents, of 
which 91 are Agaves, 306 are Cacti, and 93 are aloids, 
Mesembryanthemums, and Cotyledons, and 12 sorts of 
Nepenthes, and 84 of ferns and the like. 
In 1895 a system of recording accessions to the collec- 
tion of plants at the Garden was adopted, modeled after 
that in use at Kew, for details of which I am indebted to 
the Director and Mr. Nicholson. In this plan each acces- 
sion receives a serial number written as a numerator over 
the abbreviation of the year (e. g., the last accession for 
1895 was 278/95), and is entered in this abbreviated form, 
with indication of date, source, origin either by donation 
or purchase, and approximate valuation, in a check book in 
the Director’s office, while each accession, in addition to 
these items, has a recorded list of species and varieties 
entered in extenso in an accession book kept by the Head 
Gardener. The label of each plant is then marked with 
this indicative fraction, which is also noted on all corre- 
spondence pertaining to the accession, and on herbarium 
specimens which may be made subsequently, so that the 
record of a given plant is readily ascertained at any time 
by reference to the books and letter file. The total num- 
ber of named species and varieties, other than annuals, 
cultivated at the end of 1895, was 3,921. 
As in previous years, a considerable number of bedding 
plants were removed from the ground and potted on the 
