INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 77 



of the best methods of breeding and selecting new races 

 of hardy parentage, if he would advance to that success 

 which is ultimately hoped for in this changeable and severe 

 climate. That the Missouri Botanical Garden and the 

 School of Botany may be of the greatest utility in the de- 

 velopment of this great home-creating and home-beautify- 

 ing interest, is the expressed wish of their founder. 



A subject still in its infancy in this country, and, indeed, 

 but little advanced abnoad, is that of plant disease. In the 

 absence of reliable statistics, it cannot be said how great 

 the afffrrejTate loss from smut, mildew and similar causes is ; 

 but it must reach into the millions annually, in a country 

 whose agricultural interests are so great as those of the 

 United States. What a saving it would be if only a tithe 

 of this loss could be prevented ! 



The study of plant diseases is botanical in more senses 

 than one. Not only does a knowledge of vegetable physi- 

 ology underlie it, but the most destructive diseases are, 

 almost without exception, caused by parasitic plants of low 

 organization. 



Blight of the pear and apple is attributable to the growth 

 of certain bacteria, which destroy the trees while feeding 

 upon the starch contained in the young growth made by 

 them. To barely enumerate the rusts, smuts, mildews 

 and rots of our most valuable crops, would prove weari- 

 some and would make an appalling list. Suffice it to say 

 that nearly all are fungi. To rightly understand their nu- 

 trition, growth and propagation, and the varied forms in 

 which many of them appear, when fruiting, is a long step 

 toward controlling them and lessening their ravages. The 

 grape mildew and rose mildew, now that their natural his- 

 tory is understood, are no longer the dreaded foes that 

 they were a quarter of a century ago, and every educated 

 gardener understands how to proceed to hold them in check. 

 That they are superseded by more deadly and less tractable 

 fungous diseases, should be but a stimulus to further study. 

 No branch of botanical science is more enthusiastically 



