24 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 



here; all raised in the arboretum of the Garden. Mr. 

 Shaw used to say when planting them that he did not expect 

 to live to see these trees reach maturity; that he was 

 ♦'planting them for posterity." But nearly all of that 

 splendid family which he had nursed and reared were fully 

 grown when his coffin passed under their shadowing canopy 

 of leaves to the Mausoleum in the Garden. The Park con- 

 tains, including the surrounding strip, 276 and j^ acres; 

 and nothing has been omitted, apparently, which could 

 make the perfection of a pleasure ground. The walks, the 

 drives, the ornamental water, the labyrinth, the shady 

 groves, the well-kept grass and fragrant flowers, form a 

 combination of attractions which no lover of Nature can 

 resist. In the midst of these rare surroundings, like jewels 

 in a worthy setting, are three statues of heroic size by 

 Baron von Mueller, of Munich: Shakspeare, Humboldt, 

 and Columbus. These noble bronzes are not merely works 

 of art which any city in any country would be proud to pos- 

 sess, but they are curiously unique. Adelaide Neilson 



whose judgment in such matters may be trusted — declared 

 that <' she had seen every memorial of Shakspeare of any 

 consequence, public and private, in existence; and that this 

 one was, in her opinion, decidedly the finest." The niece 

 of Humboldt, after seeing this statue of her uncle at Mu- 

 nich, wrote Mr. Shaw, thanking him for the high honor 

 conferred upon her family, and said Europe had done noth- 

 ing comparable to it for the great naturalist. Wo know 

 America has not; and we know, too, that neither Europe 

 nor America has a monument to the discoverer of the New 

 World at all comparable to the Columbus in Tower Grove 

 Park. As has been well said; "If dumb metal could 

 speak, the greatest of poets and the greatest of naturalists 

 and the greatest of discoverers would salute each other across 

 these verdant spaces and join in thanking the man who has 

 bestowed upon them such generous and graceful immor- 

 tality." 



What the Missouri Botanical Garden is now, and prom- 



