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18 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 
sightly, in many places the bricks being in fragments and 
nearly out of the ground. During the summer this edging 
has been replaced with the best quality of pressed brick, to 
the extent of some 18,500 lineal feet, — something over three 
miles. About 10,000 square feet of sod has been removed 
along these walks and elsewhere, and relaid after grading 
the ground. 
Including the drains under walks that have been remade, 
and a subterranean drain in place of the open brick trench 
which formerly surrounded the parterre, some 4,200 run- 
ning feet of drain has been laid. 1,550 feet of this is ina 
portion of the Fruticetum, preparatory to a partially com- 
pleted double-spading of the ground as a means.of fitting it 
for experimental planting. Some of the old stoneand brick 
sewers have also been opened, and the earth with which 
they have for years been obstructed has been removed. 
But this merely forms a beginning to what must be done in 
this direction; for many parts of the Garden are still un- 
drained, little of the soil is sufficiently drained, and it is so 
long since some of the old drains have been examined that: 
the oldest employees cannot tell where over half of them 
begin nor what their course is, and the channels in many 
cases are entirely obliterated. 
The main greenhouse, facing the parterre, proves sadly 
in need of repairs. During the summer a pit was sunken 
in the central portion, to allow a fine palm to be lowered, 
as it was crowded against the glass of the roof. The east 
wing of this house, so badly decayed as not to admit of 
other treatment, was removed to the foundation on three 
sides and durably rebuilt. It will also soon be necessary 
to rebuild the west wing of the same house. The small 
plant house in the northeast corner of the vegetable garden 
(interesting as being the oldest greenhouse on the grounds, 
having been built by Mr. Shaw when the Garden was 
limited to the area immediately in the rear of the residence, 
but which has for years been unsuited to actual use) has 
also been reroofed and provided with suitable staging, for 
