SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR. 
SUBMITTED TO THE TRUSTEES JAN. 10, 1906. 
To the Board of Trustees of the Missouri Botanical Garden: 
The following report for the year 1905, on the Missouri 
Botanical Garden and the School of Botany connected 
therewith, is respectfully submitted in compliance with the 
rules of the Board. 
¢ 
GARDENING, 
Decorative gardening, from the nature and limits of 
the formal grounds devoted to this purpose, presents much 
the same problems year after year, and they are neces- 
sarily similarly met. Last year about 37,500 plants were 
used in ornamental bedding, an increase of some 2,000 as 
compared with the preceding year. The early planting of 
the parterre with bulbs, begun in 1904, has been repeated, 
and with equal success. Through the summer the same 
tract was devoted to a collection of coleus in masses rep- | 
resentative of choice varieties. These new features, and 
the bulb and foliage bedding on either side of the main 
entrance-way, met with general commendation. 
Among the special greenhouse collections, the succu- 
lents, palms, cycads, and orchids have attracted particu- 
lar attention, and each of these has received material en- 
largement. Out of doors, massed economic plants from 
the tropics, asters, pinks and dahlias, were satisfactorily 
grown in more than usual number and variety. For the 
fortnight beginning with November 13, a notable feature 
of the Garden was a collection of about 2,000 chrysan- 
themum plants, representing 211 varieties, well grown as 
standards, for massed bloom, or to single heads. These 
were displayed under canvas, and many flattering com- 
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