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teach them botany, but to teach them in addition to that how 

 to grow plants. Not merely to teach them how to grow 

 plants, but what those plants are, and the other things that 

 are closely connected with botany and practical gardening. 

 In a word, to make broad-minded gardeners. And I think 

 that as time goes on and as we have opportunity to test, by 

 their results, the steps that are being taken, and to modify 

 them in accordance with the needs that become evident, we 

 shall find that a very considerable part of the good the Gar- 

 den can do will be done in just this way. 



And yet this is only a small part of the work. A very 

 considerable part of the office of any institution, with facili- 

 ties for any kind of work in addition to the instruction it 

 gives, is the manufacturing, if I may use the term, of new 

 material : the working out of new tools ; the elaborating of 

 undigested material ; and that brings up, of course, the 

 whole question of scientific botany. I can foresee that, as 

 time goes on, the Garden, if no serious mistakes are made 

 in its management, will be able to contribute in no small 

 degree to a knowledge of our North American flora, — of 

 the plants of North America. Any local botanist well 

 knows the plants within a radius of ten or twenty miles 

 about his home. This is a simple matter. But Doctor 

 Gray lived to see the completion of only about one-third of 

 the entire synoptical elaboration of our North American 

 flora. We may know the plants within a radius of twenty 

 or thirty miles about St. Louis; but the North American 

 flora as a whole has still to be worked out in such shape 

 that any student of fair intelligence can determine what a 

 plant from certain parts of the country is. I do not for a 

 moment think that we shall play as important a part in this 

 work as other institutions may do ; as Harvard University, 

 where Dr. Gray's typical herbarium is located, for in- 

 stance ; but I do feel that we can contribute to this work in 

 no inconsiderable degree. 



A great many of the characters of plants are transient. 

 They disappear after a few weeks, after a few days, 



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