Missouri Botanical 
Garden Bulletin 
Vol. II St. Louis, Mo., June, 1914 No. 6 
SUCCULENT DESERT PLANTS 
The Garden collection of succulent desert plants, as it 
stands to-day, probably represents the most complete assem- 
blage of genera and species of this kind to be found in this 
country, and takes high rank with similar collections of the 
world. In the early history of the Garden, St. Louis was 
on the border of the vast American desert, which lay to the 
west and southwest, connecting directly with the more arid 
regions of Mexico. Early explorations of this region and 
government and railroad surveys of the western country had 
their starting points in St. Louis. With these expeditions 
traveled men trained in the various sciences, and in some 
instances botanists were employed. Many of the botanical 
specimens obtained on these trips were consigned to Dr. 
George Engelmann, at that time the principal botanist of 
the Mississippi Valley. A close friendship, engendered by 
a love of plants, sprang up between Mr. Shaw and Dr. Engel- 
mann, and it was through the latter that many of the plants 
found a permanent home in Mr. Shaw’s garden. This is 
especially true of the succulent plants from the arid regions 
of the southwest. With the Engelmann contributions as 
a nucleus, the collection of desert succulents has been steadily 
increased; interest in these plants of our own count 
created an interest in desert plants of other countries until 
now the display on exhibition at the Garden includes repre- 
sentatives from practically every arid and semi-arid region 
of both the New and the Old World. 
It may be well to explain briefly what is meant by the 
term succulent desert plants as used in this connection. 
Many plants thrive and are conspicuous in deserts during 
the brief rainy season, but disappear almost completely dur- 
ing the long, dry period. These are excluded from the 
resent discussion, as are a very large number of plants 
indigenous to the deserts of the eastern hemisphere, notably 
the Sahara, which are rush-like and exceedingly tough and 
coarse. The plants here referred to are those fleshy, suc- 
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