THE MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 

 By Dr. George T. Moore, St Louis, Mo. 



Delivered before the Society, with stereopticon ilkistrations, January 29, 



1916. 



The cultivation of plants for their heaHng qualities by the monks 

 of the middle ages is generally supposed to have been the fore- 

 runner of the modern botanical garden, although these mediaeval 

 gardens doubtless had their origin in others of greater antiquity. 

 In a recent treatise on embroidery and lace by a Frenchman, the 

 ingenious theory is advanced that the idea of a botanical garden 

 originated during the sixteenth century in France, when the demand 

 for flowers and fruits to serve as patterns for the designing of 

 brocades caused the horticulturist. Gene Robin, to open a little 

 garden, with conservatories in which he cultivated strange and 

 little known varieties. This proved to be such a success that 

 Henry IV. purchased the establishment and under the name of 

 "The Garden of the King" it became crown property. In 1626 

 the learned Guy de Brosse suggested that medical students might 

 study these plants without interfering with the designers of em- 

 broidery and tapestry. Hence the first Jardin des Plantes, with 

 its natural history museum, came into existence. This institu- 

 tion served so many excellent purposes that other countries rapidly 

 attempted to duplicate it — the author concluding with the naive 

 statement, "Who would have thought it possible for embroidery 

 thus to come to the aid of science?" 



Unfortunately for this notion as to the origin of botanical gardens, 

 the Jardin des Plantes was founded by Louis XIII. in 1610 and 

 although the aesthetic study of plants and of flowers must un- 

 doubtedly have appealed to those who visited the garden, just as 

 it does today, it seems quite certain that such collections of living 

 plants were primarily brought together because of their real or 

 supposed medicinal value. 



The function of a botanical garden as an aid to scientific teaching: 



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