110 Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis. 
In 1853 Wayman Crow secured from the Legislature 
of Missouri a charter for an educational institution in 
St. Louis to be called the Eliot Seminary. The gentle- 
men named in this charter met and organized, and chose 
William G. Eliot, President, in 1854. In deference to the 
wishes of President Eliot the name of the institution 
was changed to the Washington Institute, and in 1857, 
when the charter was amended, to Washington Univer- 
sity.* The university was formally inaugurated in 
1857—in President Eliot’s words, ‘‘An institution for 
the public benefit.’’ 
Washington University has always been in close touch 
with the Academy of Science of St. Louis. From its 
faculty have come some of the most active workers and 
officers of the Academy. To the Transactions they have 
contributed many and important papers. At a time 
when the Academy had no other home the doors of the 
university were opened to it for its meetings and the 
housing of its library and collections. 
In 1857 Henry Shaw,** a wealthy retired merchant of 
St. Louis, who had a large garden connected with his 
country home, commissioned Dr. Engelmann, then in 
Europe, to examine botanical gardens and make such 
suggestions as he might deem of value in establishing a 
botanical garden. The Missouri Botanical Garden*® is 
the offspring of Dr. Engelmann’s researches in that line. 
38 Twenty-fifth anniversary. 1882 
Chaplin, W. S. Higher education in St. Louis and Washington Uni- 
versity. 1893. 
Snow, M.S. Higher education in Missouri. 129-163. 1898. 
Eliot, C. C. William Greenleaf Eliot, minister, educator, philanthro- 
pist. 1904. 
Washington University 1857-1907. 1907. 
34 Dimmock, Thos. Report Mo. Bot. Garden. 1: 7-25. 1890. 
85 Trelease, Wm. The Missouri Botanical Garden. Rept. Mo. Bot. 
Gard. 1. 1890. 
Trelease, Wm. The Missouri Botanical Garden. Pop. Sci. Month. 
62: 198-221. 1903, : 
Spaulding, Perley. A biographical history of botany at St. Louis, 
Missouri. Pop. Sci. Month. 1909: 246-250. 
