MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 113 
has been famous in English song and story, and which to- 
day is a sight well worth crossing the ocean to see. 
Mr. Shaw returned in December, 1851. The mansion at 
Tower Grove had been finished in 1849 and the one at the 
corner of Seventh and Locust streets was then being built. 
From this time forward he was in St. Louis, with the ex- 
ception of short summer vacations at the Atlantic coast or 
the Northern lakes. Apparently a man of elegant leisure, 
he was in reality a very busy man for the next thirty years. 
An idler he never was until physical weakness compelled 
him to be such. The idea born at Chatsworth was develop- 
ing and taking shape. 
In 1857 the late Dr. Engelmann, then in Europe, was 
commissioned in a general way by Mr. Shaw to examine 
botanical gardens and obtain such suggestions as he might 
deem of value. The Missouri Garden was begun, by trench- 
ing and other preliminary preparation, in that year. About 
the same time a correspondence was begun with Sir Wil- 
liam J. Hooker, then Director of Kew Gardens, who wrote, 
under date of August 10, 1857: ‘‘Very few appendages to 
a garden of this kind are of more importance for instruc- 
tion than a library and economic museum, and these grad- 
ually increase like a rolling snow-ball.’’? This appears to 
have decided Mr. Shaw to provide a small library and mu- 
seum; the building for which was erected in 1858-59. The 
selection of books was largely entrusted to Dr. Engelmann, 
in consultation with Hooker, Decaisne, Alexander Braun, 
and other of his botanical friends. At the same time Dr. 
Engelmann urged upon Mr. Shaw the purchase of the large 
herbarium of the then recently deceased Professor Bern- 
hardi, of Erfurth, Germany, which was offered for sale at 
a very small price. Writing from Kew on this subject, 
August 11, 1857, Engelmann says: ‘‘You see that Hook- 
er’s active spirit is stirring up everything and everybody 
that comes in contact with him.’’ And Hooker writes— 
January 1, 1858—‘‘He (Engelmann) tells me of the her- 
barium of the late Dr. Bernhardi of Erfurth which he ex- 
pects to buy for St. Louis. That ought to be a good com- 
mencement for the more scientific part of the establishment. 
