128 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 



of a garden. The question has been asked me many times, 

 '* What technical uses can the Garden be put to ? '* I shall 

 not attempt to take the time that would be needed to answer 

 this question in full, and yet there are a few such uses that 

 it may be proper to run over. One of them is education, 

 which has already been touched upon; and Mr. Shaw has 

 shown the importance that he attached to this by the sepa- 

 rate endowment of a School of Botany. To furnish mate- 

 rial, — to furnish other facilities, — for the study of botany 

 and for instruction in botany, is one of the very important 

 functions of such a garden. But botany is a rather com- 

 prehensive subject. It may be made to include practically 

 all knowledge of plants and of their growth and the laws of 

 their growth . Mr. Shaw indicates , by a word here and there 

 in his will, and by other information that shows it even more 

 clearly, that he believed that one of the important functions 

 of the educational side of the Garden, in the future, should 

 be the training of gardeners. Not merely men who can 

 grow one kind of rose and make that a commercial suc- 

 cess, — that is a good thing to teach, — but men who can 

 grow not only one kind of rose, but any roses that may be 

 brought to their care. Not only roses, but other plants 

 needed for ornament. Not merely ornamental plants, but 

 fruits. Not merely fruits, but medical plants. In a word, 

 that instruction might be given in all that concerns the growth 

 of plants for all useful purposes. One of the steps that the 

 Board of Trustees of the Garden, — who, I may say, have 

 very cordially supported me in every wish that I have shown 

 so far toward the development of the Garden, — one of the 

 steps that they saw fit to take very early in their organiza- 

 tion, was to provide for this kind of instruction. The mat- 

 ter is an experiment with us as yet. It may come out well, 

 and yet we shall undoubtedly learn a great deal in the first 

 few years; but it is under way, and has been started by the 

 endowment of a series of scholarships, — yielding no large 

 sum of money, but enough to pay the expenses of students 

 and to give them this kind of instruction. Not merely to 



