26 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



and research did not develop much, if at all, prior to the middle of 

 the seventeenth century, when those at Bologna, Montpellier, 

 Leiden, Paris, and Upsala became more or less noteworthj^ in this 

 respect. The taste for ornamental and decorative plants had mean- 

 while slowly been gaining ground, as well as the desire to cultivate 

 rare and unusual species. Manj?^ persons of wealth and influence, 

 during the eighteenth century, became, through the employment 

 of men skilled in botany and horticulture, generous patrons of 

 science. The world was searched for new and rare plants which 

 were brought to Europe for cultivation, and magnificent volumes 

 describing these collections were published. The older gardens 

 were essentially private institutions, but later many of the existing 

 establishments, with an increasing number of new ones, were opened 

 to the public, either without charge or for a small admission fee. 



The modern botanical garden has a number of functions which 

 did not appear simultaneously', but were a matter of gradual devel- 

 opment. Beginning with the utilitarian idea, there were added the 

 aesthetic, the scientific, and the educational, using these words in 

 the broadest sense. Depending largely upon local conditions, 

 these functions have been given different degrees of prominence, 

 some gardens being essentially aesthetic, some mainly scientific, and 

 others combining in about equal proportions all of the elements 

 mentioned. Certainly the modern tendency is to make the botani- 

 cal garden something more than a "museum of living plants" 

 which, however necessary, is to a large degree uninteresting and 

 lacking in its appeal to the public. 



Most botanical gardens in this country are either connected with 

 some institution of learning or maintained wholly or in part by the 

 municipality. In this respect the Missouri Botanical Garden is 

 unique, since it has no connection whatsoever with the city, paying 

 taxes on all its revenue-producing property and only indirectly 

 being associated with Washington University, through the graduate 

 school of botany. 



The garden as it now exists is the development' of the private 

 garden of Mr. Henry Shaw, who came to this country from England 

 in 1818 and soon after settled in St. Louis. Acquiring a fortune 

 within about twenty years, Mr. Shaw devoted the larger part of 

 the remaining fifty years of his life to the enlargement and manage- 



