148 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 



for all time to the people of St. Louis, to the people of Mis- 

 souri, and of the Nation. 



A little more than half a century ago, a young man came 

 to St. Louis and cast his lot with our people. With but a 

 small capital he commenced business and, by close attention 

 to that business, was successful. All of his spare hours, as 

 he has told me himself, were devoted to the study of 

 botany. He loved trees and flowers with a devotion which 

 he could not overcome. And he determined, even soon 

 after locating here, at some future day to establish a Gar- 

 den which should be a pleasure to every person who should 

 visit it as well as to himself. Unlike other business men, 

 when the cares of his office and the duties of his business 

 were over, he gave himself to his books, to the study of 

 botany, and mastered that most difficult, that most inter- 

 esting science. He collected all of the indigenous plants 

 which it was possible for him to secure here, and sent 

 abroad for other choice trees and plants, spending his 

 means, devoting his time, to the collection of what we now 

 have here, which is so great a credit to the City; and the 

 Botanical Garden which bears his name has not an equal 

 upon this continent and but two or three that equal it in the 

 whole world. 



What an example has Henry Shaw set to the young men 

 of this country ! With his own mind, with his own hands 

 he carved out his fortune. Instead of wasting it, as many 

 do, he spent it for the good of the people of St. Louis, for 

 the good of humanity. He loved flowers and that love is an 

 innate love of man. History teems with the description of 

 gardens from the earliest ages of man. Even biblical his- 

 tory tells us that Adam was placed in the Garden of Eden. 

 This love for flowers, this aesthetic, finer nature, needs more 

 attention, needs more culture than is usually given it. And 

 we have advantages here in this city in that respect pos- 

 sessed by few others, and yet, gentlemen, this is but the 

 foundation. Mr. Shaw has simply laid the foundation. 

 What will not this garden and this magnificent park a hun- 



