60 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 
An act of the Legislature was passed by which two mem- 
bers of said Court were to act as commissioners, and two 
to be appointed on the part of the city, and the President 
of the County Court was to act as President of the Board; 
and the matter was conducted in that way. 
The example which Mr. Shaw set in establishing Tower 
Grove Park led to the development of the park system in 
this city, and we have now a greater area of parks than 
any other city of the same population in the United States, 
if not in the world. There is not in America a larger park 
than Forest Park, unless it be Fairmount Park in Phila- 
delphia; and what led to the establishment of that park 
was not especially the desire to have it as a park, but it 
was urged as a sanitary measure, to preserve in a healthful 
condition, in an uncontaminated state, the Schuylkill River 
which supplied the city of Philadelphia with water. So I 
think we owe to Henry Shaw a debt of gratitude for estab- 
lishing a pattern, a model here, in Tower Grove Park, 
which led to the introduction of other parks in the city. 
Likewise in establishing the Missouri Botanical Garden, 
he bad a motive. He made there a sort of breathing place, 
as all parks and gardens are the lungs to a city, where the 
people can go and enjoy the pure country air, the songs of 
birds, the sight of beautiful flowers, the fine landscapes, 
which are everywhere presented to the view. 
Mr. Shaw had an innate love for the beautiful in nature. 
He had been abroad. He had visited the beautiful Chats- 
worth Garden and the Kew Gardens and the best gardens 
in Europe, and it is said that he became inspired while vis- 
iting the Chatsworth Garden with the thought of estab- 
lishing here the grand Missouri Botanical Garden, and 
Tower Grove Park, both of which have been so beneficial 
to the city. He wasa native of England, and when he 
first went out to Tower Grove and erected his house he 
undoubtedly had in view simply the establishment of some 
such place as the country gentleman of England enjoys. 
But when he had obtained wealth and position, and when 
