Summer Meeting. 23 



to cacti and the others to miscellaneous collections. An inventory 

 taken last year showed more than 8,000 varieties and species of plants 

 growing at the garden in 1898. 



The library contains about 33,000 books and pamphlets of which 

 probably more than 3,000 belong to the more purely horticultural part. 

 All are card catalogued as well as systematically arranged on the shelves. 

 In addition there are more than 240,000 index cards referring to the 

 printed literature on a great variety of horticultural and botanical sub- 

 jects. The herbarium contains about 300,000 sheets of dried plants. 



The course of instruction for garden piipils covers a period of four 

 years and provides, in the first place for six scholarship students who are 

 granted a cash allowance of $200 each for the first year, $250 the second 

 year and $300 for each succeeding year; and further provision is made 

 for the admission of students, either young men or young women, to the 

 regular course upon the payment to the garden of a tuition fee of $25* 

 per year, said students being entitled to the same privileges and certifi- 

 cates as the scholarship students. One of the six scholarship positions 

 is filled by the nominee of the Missouri State Horticultural Society, one 

 by the St. Louis Florists' Club and the remaining four by competitive 

 examination. All candidates must be young men between the ages of 

 fourteen and twenty years, of good character and possessing at least a 

 good elementary English education and whenever the number of appli- 

 cants exceeds the number of scholarships to be awarded the candidates 

 •are examined in some of the higher branches, English literature, alge- 

 bra, German, the elements of botany, zoology and physiology. The 

 prescribed course of study requires of each student from nine to ten 

 hours manual work each day, according to the season, for the first year 

 and during the last three years five hours per day in general gardening 

 operations. The student is periodically transferred from one depart- 

 ment to another and to more responsible tasks according to merit. They 

 thus become familiar with all branches of the work. The balance of 

 their time or one half day during three years is given to theoretical 

 instruction — lectures, courses of reading, field observations, etc., all of 

 which is practically tested so far as possible in the field, laboratories, or 

 greenhouses. The course covers 924 exercises for each student di- 

 vided among the different branches as follows: floriculture 96, vegetable 



