TWENTIETH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR, 19 



VISITORS. 



One index of the extent to which the Garden is meeting the 

 wish of its founder to provide an attractive and interesting 

 as well as an instructive collection of plants, for the public, is 

 afforded by the number of visitors. In 1908 these numbered 

 118,465, of whom 16,659 were counted on the Sunday after- 

 noon in June, and 17,312 on the Sunday afternoon in Sep- 

 tember, when the Garden was open under direction of Mr. 

 Shaw's will. Of the remaining 84,494, who came on week 

 days, some 3,000 were specially attracted by the tuHps at the 

 end of March, and 28,079 came to see the chr>'santhcmums in 

 November. As in the two preceding years, Captain Robert 

 McCulloch, of the United Railways Company, lighted the 

 chrysanthemum tent during the fortnight of the exhibition, 

 thus not only ensuring sufficient light on dull and stormy days, 

 but making it possible once more to open this part of the 

 Garden in the evening; thereby enabling 7,528 persons, many 

 of whom could not have come in the daytime, to see the 

 collection. The seasonal distribution of week-day visitors is 

 graphically shown in the appended diagram (F) on which 

 the average for earlier years (except 1904)* has also boc^n 

 shown, the November average for 1905-1907 inclusive being 

 separately indicated in a broken line. 



At the beginning of the year, a new and revised edition 

 of the little Souvenir Handbook of the Garden was placed on 

 sale at the gate, and 642 copies of it have been sold to 

 visitors. 



Sunday visitors who, according to the chance condition of 

 the weather on the two open Sunday afternoons, fluctuate 

 much in number from year to year, are recorded, and their 

 ratio to the total is indicated, on a separate diagram (G). 

 Though differing greatly year by year, this number appeare 

 to be gradually if only sHghtly increasing. During the time 

 that the Garden has been under the care of the Trustees over 

 half a million people have taken advantage of the privilege 

 of visiting it on Sunday afforded by the special provision of 



* Rept. Mo. Bot. Gard. 16 : 17. 



