42 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 
from $10,000.00 to $20,000.00 per year. In locating the palm house, to 
which ultimately will be appended a system of westward extensions, 
careful attention has been paid to the convenience and economy of man- 
aging the plant houses, the sites available for such a palm house, and the 
effect which such a house can be made to produce in the grounds; and 
after very careful study of the matter I am convinced that the only other 
site which would naturally suggest itself, namely, in the arboretum, to 
the west of the parterre, is quite unsuited because of the surroundings, 
while the connection of this large system with the present system of 
houses will not in any way facilitate the work of maintenance nor render 
possible economy in it. 
These plans, which have been sketched in sufficient detail, as I believe, to 
meet the requirements of the Board, leave the main farm, of some sixty 
acres, for improvement at an indefinite date in the future, when the 
means of the Garden shall be very much greater than they now are; but 
with these improvements, which it is proposed to complete within a period 
of ten years, it will, I think, rank with any similar institution in attrac- 
tiveness. By the time the North American synopsis has become fairly 
attractive, however, it will be possible to effect a radical and wholesale 
renovation of the present tract devoted to the garden proper, a renova- 
tion which it is impolitic to make until another piece of attractive 
planting has been effected, since for a period of years after grounds have 
been newly planted they are unattractive, giving promise only of what 
they are to be. 
RESEARCH FACILITIES. 
In the plans sketched above, all of the proposed planting and exten- 
sion of the grounds has had reference to their usefulness for research as 
well as their instructiveness and beauty. But the great opportunity 
which Mr. Shaw’s large bequest has offered the Board is not merely to 
secure beautiful and instructive grounds, but to advance the knowledge 
of botany by the performance of original investigation, and the Garden’s 
success in the future will be measured largely by its attainments in this 
direction, since the arrangements which have been suggested above are 
certain to assure beautiful and instructive collections of both hardy and 
tender plants. Realizing this fully, I have, from the first, made a strong 
effort to secure all facilities for research work for which money could be 
spared, year by year, from the available income of the Board, and as a 
result of this effort the Garden possesses at present a very valuable 
library and herbarium; and an examination of its annual Reports will 
show that the small proportion of my time and that of my assistants 
which could be spared from necessary maintenance and executive 
routine has been productive of a considerable amount of such work. 
During the past five years, botanists from a distance have visited the Gar- 
den in some numbers, and have made use of its facilities for the perform- 
ance of similar work, and the collections have always,when possible, been 
made available to competent investigators who could not visit St. Louis 
for the purpose of using them (a courtesy which I need hardly say is ex- 
