Winter Meeting. 251 



"^b 



hundred pounds. The parterre with its beds of brilliant flowers adds 

 much to the beauty of the surroundings. The grove in which the 

 instigator of all this beauty is entombed is always a welcome retreat 

 to the tired visitor. To one side the fig trees show their rich gre.en 

 foliage and their lucious fruit. The magnolia trees with their fragi-ant 

 blossoms alwa3^s excite 'the admiration of the visitor. 



Of the houses perhaps the most interesting are the Mexican 

 house containing many rare plants from that country. The East 

 Indian house with its array of anthuriums and other tropical plants. 



The Fern dome in which can be seen any fern from the smallest 

 to the Giant Tree fern from the Hawaiian Islands. 



The cactus houses which contain one of the finest collections of 

 cacti in the United States; the Agaves (century plants) which bloom 

 only once and then die. 



The palm dome where the majectic palms throw out their giant 

 leaves. The houses containing the economic plants, some of the most 

 interesting of which are the coffee tree (coffea arabica), the quinine 

 tree, strychnine plant, tea plant, the rubber trees (Ficus elastica) and 

 many others. 



Such a collection, with the other things that group about it, gives 

 the means of studying not only the systematic botany of a region — of 

 what plants are — but also of studying the ways in which plants 

 grow ; contributing thus directly to horticulture through the ad- 

 vancement of a knowledge of vegetable physiology and by the study 

 of the diseases of plants, and of the possible preventatives or remedies 

 for such diseases. 



A great deal of work remains to be done in this way and as time 

 goes on the Missouri Botanical Garden is sure to play its part in such 

 work. 



THURSDAY, DECEMBER to, 2 P. M. 



INSECT ENEMIES OF THE YEAR. 

 (Prof. J. M. Stedman.) 



I will speak a short time only of some of the most troublesome insects 

 of the year, judging by the letters which come to the office. 



The Bark or Pinhole Beetle. — As a rule this insect attacks dead, 

 weak or sickly trees. It makes a hole through the bark and then works 

 down between the bark and wood, depositing its eggs, about eighty in 

 number, which soon hatch and continue the work of eating their way 

 between the bark and the wood. In a short time they undergo their 



