60 MISSOURI. BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 



and heart interest so necessary to the full discharge of the 

 duty imposed. Too often, as the original trustees pass away, 

 interest Lags and the purposes of the donor are unfulfilled or 

 thwarted. Not so in this ease. On the contrary, those who 

 have been charged with this duty and who have been invited 

 to share a high privilege seem to have entered fully into the 

 desires and ambitions and ideals of Henry Shaw. .Men of 

 thought and men of vision have been at work here. There has 

 been a consistent enlargement of the scope of the work car- 

 ried on, with the thought that these gardens should contribute 

 more and more largely to the educational development in this 

 country and to our scientific knowledge of plant life. The gath- 

 ering of representative groups of healthy plants, so arranged 

 as to be most attractive and easy to recognize and remember, 

 has added much to the value of these gardens for educational 

 purposes. The technical study of plants, especially in the field 

 of plant physiology, and the opportunity given here for plant 

 students to pursue their investigations have attracted most fa- 

 vorable comment from scientists interested in plant life. As 

 head for the time being of a department which numbers on 

 its staff many of the most eminent scientists of the world, 1 am 

 glad to acknowledge the value of this work. 



"If, however, 1 should undertake to place relative values 

 upon the various activities which are being carried on hen 1 

 and measure them in percentages set down in orderly fashion. 

 I should place first the subtle influence which these gardens 

 exert noon the lives and characters of those who come for 

 study and research and, more especially, for the pure joy of 

 living for a time among the beautiful plants the good God has 

 given Ilis people. 



"Wise parents as they have opportunity bring their chil- 

 dren in contact with Nature in her varied forms. They take 

 them to the mountains that they may see Nature in her more 

 rugged aspects, that they may see with their own eyes evi- 

 dences of the mighty forces which were at work when the land 

 was shaped. They take them to the rivers and to the sea that 

 they may see God's hand upon the waters, now in repose, again 

 lashed into fury by the winds. They take them to the fields 

 and to the forests that they may have some understanding of 

 our dependence upon the soil. They bring them to places such 

 as this, where plants of almost endless variety of form and 

 color, fragrance and beauty, appeal to the finer emotions and 

 thus develop a love of the gentle and beautiful which influ- 

 ences thought and action throughout life and which adds 

 largely to the capacity for happy living. 



