2 THE PLANT WOELD 



ment of botany, now known as the Henry Shaw School of Botany, in 

 Washington University, his will further making the connection between 

 the School of Botany and the Garden most intimate, although they re- 

 main under totally separate management. 



As noAV constituted, the Garden is under the control of a Board of 

 Trustees, of whom some, men interested in science, education and mu- 

 nicipal affairs, are members ex-officio, while a majority are either those 

 designated by Mr. Shaw, or their successors appointed, under the terms 

 of his will, by the Board. In 1885, when the Henry Shaw School of 

 Botany was founded, the writer was invited by the University authori- 

 ties, in consultation with Mr. Shaw and Professor Gray, to become its 

 Director, and on the death of Mr. Shaw, in 1889, the direction of the 

 Garden was further entrusted to him. 



The Garden, as now improved, includes approximately forty-five 

 acres, devoted to a formal flower garden, various synopses of botanical 

 or economical significance, a fruticetum, an arboretum, and a moderate- 

 sized range of houses, some of old model and others of recent construc- 

 tion in accordance with the present practice in plant-house building. 

 The planting in these divisions the Garden is in part formal, in i)ai't 

 natural, and, while the transitions are not always satisfactory, the ex- 

 treme representations of the two methods are fairly successful. In the 

 plant-houses, in addition to ranges furnished with staging, which is best 

 suited to the growth and display of certain kinds of plants, other ranges 

 are devoted to representative collections of a homogeneous character, 

 planted out in as natural a way as maj' be. There are, for instance, a 

 fern house, a tree-fern tower, an acacia house, a yucca tower, and a 

 cactus hoiise, in which the impression produceable by each of these 

 classes of plants is accentuated by the natural manner in which they 

 are grown. 



Within the last year, some twenty additional acres of ground adjacent 

 to the original Garden have been graded, provided with drainage and water 

 supply, and in large part planted with the necessary trees and shrubs, 

 the purpose being to make of this tract a synoj)sis of the North Ameri- 

 can flora, arranged in the well known, if passing, sequence of families of 

 Bentham and Hooker. Within the next few years, this synoptical 

 tract will further be improved by the making of the necessary walks 

 and the definite arrangement of the herbaceous portion of the synopsis, 

 which will comprise, in all, some 1850 species, exclusively of North 

 American nativity and representing as large a range of genera and fam- 

 ilies as conditions permit. Contiguous to this tract and the present 

 arboretum lies some sixty acres of additional ground, plans for the im- 

 provement of which are now well advanced, and it is proposed that this 

 tract shall be planted with a collection of trees, shrubs and herbaceous 



