20 State Horticultural Society. 



or noonday sun. I also have a tuberose ready to burst into bloom. I 

 thought it best to have them in the hall to-night, as when the gi'ound was 

 covered with snow and sleet this spring, I told a gentleman I had cab- 

 bage plants up two leaves above the ground (had only sown the seed 

 forty-eight hours before.) He looked at me and said, "I thought the 

 fishing parties were all out of town." 



After hearing the paper read Secretary Goodman highly compli- 

 mented the paper and said there were more good practical facts in it than 

 any he ever heard read before the society on this subject. He wished 

 to add cosmos to the list of flowers usually grown. It is a late bloomer, 

 great bunches of flowers can be cut after most of flowers have got 

 through blooming. Plant in rows same as sweet peas and plow them. 



Vocal Solo.-^Miss Bessie Saunders. 



THE MISSOTIEI BOTANICAL GAKDEN AND WHAT IT IS 

 DOING FOR HORTICULTURE. 



By H. C. Irish, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, Mo. 



The founder of the Missouri Botanical Garden, Mr. Henry Shaw, 

 having amassed a comparatively large fortune, decided, when at the age 

 of thirty-five to retire from active business and devote the rest of his life 

 to the pleasures of a garden. He had come into possession of several 

 hundred acres of land situated at that time about four miles from St. 

 Louis. Upon this estate he built a home and began a plan of improving 

 and beautifying a few acres for his own satisfaction and pleasure. As 

 the grounds developed and grew in attractiveness the public began to 

 take so much interest in the place that about 1858, Mr. Shaw concluded 

 to convert them into a scientific institution. Accordingly for their fur- 

 ther development he followed a plan with this in view and very mater- 

 ially increased the variety of plants and arranged them not only in an 

 artistic manner, but in such a way that the plants themselves could be 

 most effectually exhibited. About the same time he secured from the 

 State Legislature an act enabling him to place the Garden, either during 



