14 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 
As a first step in the marked advance which may be 
looked for in the Garden, the Board have authorized the 
grading of about twenty acres of ground lying between the 
present Garden and Tower Grove Park, according to the 
plans prepared some years since by Olmsted, Olmsted 
and Eliot, the intention being to plant this area as a per- 
manent addition to the grounds in such a way as to add 
greatly to their attractiveness, while representing in a com- 
pact form the leading features of the North American 
flora.* There is reason to hope that, on the completion 
of this extension, some eighty acres additional of land lying 
to the west of the present Garden may be improved, in ac- 
cordance with plans furnished by the same landscape archi- 
tects, in such manner as to represent the most modern views 
of the relationship of as many of the natural orders of plants 
as can be grown successfully in the climate of St. Louis, t 
while the present insufficient plant-houses will doubtless 
be proportionately increased and improved. 
In midsummer of 1898 a definite count of visitors enter- 
ing the Garden by the main gate was instituted, and ‘it was 
estimated that some 89,102 persons visited the grounds 
during 1898.{ This count has been continued through the 
past season, with the result of showing 54,429 visitors for 
week days, 7,755 for the open Sunday in June, and 8,837 
for the open Sunday in September, or a total of 71,021 
for 1899. A comparison of the record for week days of 
the last five months of the two years, shows a decrease in 
1899 of 3,339, although, when the September Sunday is 
counted in for each year, 33 more persons are found to 
have visited the Garden in the last five months of 1899 
than in the corresponding months of 1898. 
The herbarium, as in previous years, has received the 
most important current collections, particularly those rep- 
resentative of the North American flora. A collection of 
* On details of this subject see Report. 8 : 38. 
+ Report. 8:39. } Report. 103 16. 
