130 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 



after a few hours in some cases ; and yet these characters 

 can bo preserved indefinitely if the phint is dried or other- 

 wise preserved properly at the right time. A great 

 many of the characters of plants can be determined only 

 while their fruit lasts, while the flower lasts; and so, for 

 these and other reasons, comes the necessity of forming an 

 herbarium and a museum, — a collection of material, in 

 other words, in condition for the study of these characters 

 a decade or a century after the plants were collected. A 

 great many of the characters of plants, however, cannot be 

 preserved in this way ; and yet a drawing faithfully made 

 at the time when the character is well shown, — for in- 

 stance, in a transient flower, — may last forever. Hence 

 the occasion for a library, in which these characters are faith- 

 fully recorded in word and sketch. Such a library and 

 herbarium are being formed in a quiet way for the Garden, 

 and will be enlarged in such measure as seems wise. We 

 may in a given day use only two, or three, or twenty speci- 

 mens or pages of a book ; but in the course of years all 

 come into use ; and I regard as the foundation for any in- 

 stitution which is to have scientific value, such collections 

 as these, which are to be drawn on when they are needed, 

 as a basis for work. 



A foundation of this sort cannot be made in a day. It 

 is not a thing which by a herculean effort can be gathered 

 at the moment when it is needed for use. It is a founda- 

 tion that must be laid stone by stone. It is very expens- 

 ive, — in time, money and energy, — and at the same time 

 it is a thing that must gradually be brought together. I 

 hope that here at the Garden this may be done until we 

 shall have laid such a working foundation as may lead to 

 the best work that can be looked for. 



Such a collection, with the other things that group about 

 it, gives the means of studying not only the systematic 

 botany of a region, — of studying what plants are, — but 

 also of studying the ways in which plants grow ; contrib- 

 uting thus directly to horticulture through the advance- 



