MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 29 
EXPANSION OF THE GARDEN 
The experience of botanical gardens established within 
cities has invariably been that ultimately they were compelled 
to move to other localities because of the difficulty of growing 
plants in a city atmosphere. In some eases, an additional 
reason for moving has been that necessary room for expansion 
could only be obtained in this way. 
For a great many years it has been recognized that it is no 
longer possible to grow to perfection, either outdoors or 
indoors, many trees and plants at the present location of the 
Garden, and those in charge have felt that there was no 
other alternative than to look forward to a time when the 
present location of the Garden must be abandoned. On the 
other hand, all interested in the Garden would deplore the 
necessity for giving up its present accessible location. By 
far the greater number of visitors come on street-cars or by 
foot, and to move the Garden outside the city to a distance 
sufficient to insure its favorable location for the next fifty or 
hundred years would greatly reduce its influence as a recrea- 
tional and educational institution. Many who now come to 
the Garden frequently would be excluded from this pleasure, 
and visits of schools in a body and other large delegations 
would probably be eliminated. 
Abandoning the present location would likewise involve 
moving the library, the herbarium, and the laboratories. 
Accessibility is a distinct factor in the usefulness of these 
important adjuncts of a botanical garden, since both com- 
mercial and educational institutions of the city depend 
greatly upon them for assistance and advice. 
The Board of Trustees was thus confronted with two horns 
of a dilemma, apparently irreconcilable, and it is only recently 
that the proper solution of the problem seems to have been 
arrived at. By retaining in its present location that part 
of the Garden which is now improved, including all of the 
buildings and greenhouses, there can be no objection to 
acquiring additional land some distance from St. Louis 
where floral display material as well as plants and trees for 
outside use can be grown. In other words, the plan involves 
making the present location of the Garden a permanent one 
for an indefinite period, where it will serve as the city show- 
room in which to display the material grown to best advantage 
