Mexico, Cuba, Central 
MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 9 
tions which give a part of the work necessary for fitting 
young men and women to be competent gardeners and super- 
intendents, there is no one place which so admirably com- 
bines theoretical instruction with facilities for practical ex- 
perience as the Missouri Botanical Garden. The reunion of 
former garden pupils, together with the organization of an 
alumni association, has peel sufficiently commented upon 
in the December BuLLETIN. 
ATTENDANCE 
The total number of visitors attracted to the Garden con- 
tinues to increase, although the excess of 1914 over 1913 is 
not so great as that of 1913 over 1912. The Sunday attend- 
ance for the year has fallen off, part of this being due to 
the fact that there were two more open Sundays (in March) 
in 1913, on which 10,765 people came to the Garden. In 
1914 the open Sundays did not begin until April, and the 
hot, dry summer affected still further the number of Sun- 
day visitors. May, June, and July of this year all showed 
a decrease over the previous year, nearly 6,000 fewer people 
coming to the ne last June than in the corresponding 
month in 1913. It seems fair to assume that such a decrease 
was undoubtedly due to the weather, since all of the other 
months of the year, with the exception of March (for the 
reason above noted) and December, show substantial in- 
creases. The marked falling off in the December attend- 
ance is probably due in part to the bad weather, but there 
can be no question that the interruption of car service, 
due to the work on the Tower Grove viaduct, had a very 
discouraging effect upon any who may have wished to come 
to the Garden. The probabilities are, taking the experience 
of similar institutions under like circumstances, that with 
the transportation facilities at present available, the attend- 
ance at the Garden cannot be expected to increase materially 
beyond the present numbers. 
In order that some idea might be obtained of the localities 
from which visitors to the Garden come, a system of volun- 
tary registration was inaugurated on January 1, 1914, and 
continued throughout the twelve months. Less than 50 = 
cent of those coming to the Garden registered, but it is 
lieved that the results obtained are fairly indicative of the 
various sources of visitors. While the number of foreigners 
constituted such a small fraction of the total number of 
_ visitors that it is hardly worth considering, it is interesting — 
to note that last year people came to the Garden from Canada, 
erica, East Indies, Great Britain, 
* 
