FIRST ANNUAL BANQUET. 127 



There is a pleasure that we all derive from seeing flowers. 

 There is a certain restfulness in the green of the grass. 

 There is a satisfaction in seeing things grow. In planning 

 anything in the way of a garden, even limiting it by prefix- 

 ing the word " botanical," it is impossible to divest the idea 

 of a garden from the idea of a park, — a place to which peo- 

 ple can go for their recreation, a place where a love and 

 taste for the beautiful maybe at once cultivated and gratified ; 

 and it is to me a real pleasure that, by the express provisions 

 of his will, Mr. Shaw has determined that the ornamental 

 features of the Garden which has for many years proved a 

 source of pleasure to the citizens of St. Louis and to visitors 

 from a distance, shall be maintained ; that there shall be no 

 less attractiveness than in the past, but rather more. I 

 think it is a very easy thing to promise that this provision 

 shall be complied with. It is a pleasure to feel this. And 

 yet it costs a great deal of money to maintain a park, and I 

 have no doubt that some of my botanical friends will criti- 

 cise the annual expenditure of a very large sum of money 

 for maintaining the strictly ornamental features of the Gar- 

 den. I am rather glad that if so, they cannot criticise me 

 personallj'' for this. Whether I feel that in all cases this 

 money is well spent or not, the general feeling cannot be 

 resisted that it will do good. Not only can a garden which 

 is an ornament conduce to the pleasure of people, but in a 

 very unobtrusive way, by simply giving access to a named 

 collection of plants, it is doing much more than that. Peo- 

 ple see a plant with a name, and ask a question and answer 

 it at the same time. They get information. They become 

 started; and it is a very simple matter, having once begun 

 that kind of questioning, to continue it. And so the simple, 

 unobtrusive naming of a collection of plants is, I think, do- 

 ing a great deal of good educational work. 



But this idea of contributing to pleasure, and the attendant 

 idea of giving such information as comes incidentally, is that 

 which is farthest from what I have already spoken of as the 

 original intention of a garden, — the strictly utilitarian idea 



