34 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 
work have succeeded in the encouragement of research, even 
before special laboratories were set apart, is clearly shown 
through the scientific contributions which have appeared in 
the Annual Reports of the Garden and in other botanical 
publications. The extent of the impetus for research during 
the present year is made apparent by the fact that, including 
graduate students, and exclusive of visiting botanists, no less 
than fourteen persons at the Garden are now devoting some 
of their time to investigation. Moreover, since 1889 the 
library and herbarium have grown rapidly and now represent 
a wealth of capital available to present and future botanical 
and plant industry workers. The library, comprising about 
70,000 books and pamphlets, is, perhaps, the largest botani- 
eal library in the country collected in one building. 
Up to 1903, however, it had not been found possible to 
designate any building or room ially for experimental 
laboratory work. In that year the basement of the museum 
building was equipped as a plant pathological and chemical 
laboratory, the equipment being provided through the co- 
operation of the Bureau of Plant Industry, U. 8. Depart- 
ment of Agriculture. Later co-operation was also arranged 
with the Forest Service. It was known as the Mississippi Val- 
ley Laboratory of the Department of Agriculture. The 
laboratory was in charge of Dr. Hermann von Schrenk, and 
as a result of his work, and that of his associates, important 
contributions have been made to our knowledge of plant dis- 
eases,—in fact, the work represents the first systematic study 
of timber diseases in this country. Here also the important 
problem of timber treatment received scientific attention. 
Co-operation with the Department of Agriculture was dis- 
continued in 1906, but Dr. von Schrenk was subsequently 
appointed honorary pathologist to the Garden, and this labo- 
ratory for plant pathology and chemistry has been main- 
tained in the museum building. 
The Laboratory Building.—A chief augmentation of the 
facilities for research and graduate instruction was effected 
when, in 1909, there was completed extensive fireproof 
addition to the library and herbarium building, more than 
doubling the size of the former structure. The south wing 
of this structure was set apart primarily for laboratory pur- 
poses. At the same time Dr. George T. Moore was appointed 
to the hotest age Sie physiology and applied botany. In 
connection with this professorship two research fellowships 
were established, and in the following year three more were 
added, all five being designated the Rufus J. Lackland Re- 
