INAUGURAL ADDKESS. 67 



There is reason to suppose that in a city with the popu- 

 lation of St. Louis, where there is a demand for intellectual 

 pursuits, many persons are to be found who, while not 

 otherwise connected with the University or other institu- 

 tions of learning, will be glad to profit by the advantages 

 for botanical study that the University is now able to offer. 

 The study of systematic botany is capable of being made 

 more than usually attractive here, where the spring opens 

 early, and the flora is unusually rich and varied ; while the 

 treasures of the Botanical Garden, supplementing the wealth 

 of floral forms that occur spontaneously, facilitate the ac- 

 quisition of a comprehensive knowledge of the families of 

 plants which are likely to attract attention or excite inter- 

 est. With the coming of fall, the predominance of an en- 

 tirely different class of vegetation, characterized by the 

 abundance of golden-rods, asters and other Compositse, 

 changes the aspect of the flora materially, so that the work 

 can very profitably be renewed then where it was interrupted 

 by the heat of summer ; nor need it be terminated by the 

 coming of frost, for many exotics bloom largely, or exclu- 

 sively, during the winter season. The study of ferns and 

 grasses, two of the most interesting groups, is made quite 

 as profitably from dried specimens as from fresh plants, 

 and can be taken up with profit when other material fails. 

 These groups, especially the ferns and grasses, form a most 

 desirable subject for winter study. 



While there are circumstances attendino^ the be^innino: of 

 the new department, which prevent the attempt to organize 

 a class to run through the entire winter, this year, an effort 

 will be made to open a laboratory at once for the study of 

 these groups until the holidays ; and provision is being made 

 for the reception of a class in analytical work for the last 

 eight or ten weeks of the college year, for the benefit of all 

 persons who feel an interest in this study, whether con- 

 nected with the University or not. Such a class need not 

 of necessity be large. The character of its work is to be 

 measured not so much in bulk as in quality ; but if I do 





