ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCE OF ST. LOUIS. 639 



professional botanist, but in the leisure hours of a very busy physi- 

 cian's life. In these days, when there is some tendency to sneer at 

 u amateur scientists/' it is well to remember the work of men like 

 George Engelmann. 



To completely understand the work of the St. Louis Academy of 

 Science to-day, something must be known of two other institutions 

 the Washington University and the Missouri Botanical Garden. 

 The three institutions are closely related in their personnel and in 

 their work. The reason for their mention at this point is that the gar- 

 den is largely due to George Engelmann. Henry Shaw was a wealthy 

 business man of St. Louis; he lived in the city, but had a country 

 home and a great property in land outside of the then city limits. 

 Mr. Shaw enjoyed country life and developed a garden, which even 

 then was an attractive place of resort. A friend of Engelmann, the 

 latter was able to direct the rich man's taste into profitable channels; 

 the result was that Shaw's Garden was really a botanical garden. 

 From it has grown an institution of the greatest importance and 

 interest the Missouri Botanical Garden. It is organized in accord- 

 ance with the terms of Mr. Shaw's will. The garden proper con- 

 sists of several acres, upon which stand the old country home now 

 used as the residence of the director, and the former city house of 

 Henry Shaw, which was in accordance with the terms of the will 

 removed from its former site and rebuilt exactly, and which is now 

 used as an office. In this latter building is the botanical library 

 one of the best in America; two particularly interesting sections of 

 it are the pre-Linnsean and the Linnsean libraries. Here, too, is the 

 Engelmann herbarium, containing rich series of important type 

 specimens. This valuable donation to the garden was made by Dr. 

 George J. Engelmann, son of the botanist. A graceful thing done 

 by Mr. Shaw shortly after Engelmann's death was the republication, 

 in one quarto volume of 508 pages and 103 full-page plates, of all of 

 Dr. Engelmann's published botanical work. The garden also has 

 now in its possession the Engelmann library and all the original notes 

 and botanical sketches made by Dr. Engelmann. The mass of these 

 notes is enormous. Dr. Trelease, to whose care they are intrusted, 

 found twenty thousand slips which, bound up, composed sixty quarto 

 volumes. The garden includes among its features an arboretum of 

 the first grade, greenhouses where experimental work is conducted, 

 experimental gardens for fruits and vegetables, and a Bible garden. 

 This last, an idea carried out in Mr. Shaw's lifetime and still main- 

 tained, aims to illustrate the plants mentioned in the Bible. An 

 excellent feature in the work of the garden is the training school for 

 practical gardeners. Six young men are here on scholarships, fol- 

 lowing a definite course of study; they live upon the place and re- 



