Foreword 
the beauty of Garfield Park Conservatory is widely appreciated, 
the educational facilities of the Conservatory are comparatively 
unappreciated. In an attempt to remedy this condition and to render 
the great educational resources of the institution more readily available 
to the general public, the Commissioners have authorized the com- 
pilation of this Catalog-Guide. 
There is, I understand, no larger collection of exotic plants housed 
under glass anywhere in the United States than the collection in Gar- 
field Park Conservatory. The only rival collections are those of the 
New York and the Missouri Botanical Gardens. The outdoor plant- 
ings in the parks under the jurisdiction of this Board include practically 
all species of trees, shrubs, perennials, and annuals that can be grown 
outdoors in this climate. The total number of species and varieties 
grown outdoors and under glass, equals, I am told, any collection in 
the United States. The West Park Commissioners are desirous that 
the people of Illinois should realize what a valuable and unusual educa- 
tional institution has been built up in their midst. 
It would, of course, be of interest to the specialist and the scientist 
if we should issue a complete list of the species in our collection, along 
with information concerning the botanical characteristics and the 
morphology of the various species. Such a publication, however, 
would be of interest to but a small part of the people who visit the Con- 
servatory. We have felt it more in keeping with the duties and 
responsibilities of such a body as the West Park Board to issue a pub- 
lication for the general public, written in terms the layman can readily 
understand, and giving the sort of information in which the general 
public is most likely to be interested. 
The species described are arranged alphabetically, for each room 
of the Conservatory, according to their Latin names. The use of the 
Latin name for this purpose is unavoidable. Common names vary 
greatly from one country to another, and would be most confusing to 
A populace drawn from as many different parts of the world as is ours. 
at least a dozen different plants, for example, are known in different 
parts of the world as India-rubber plants; hence the name “India- 
rubber plant’’ signifies a different species to people from different 
countries or from different sections of the same country. The names 
Ficus elastica, Hevea brasiliensis, and Manihot Glaziovii, however, are 
standard the world over—they signify the same species to a native of 
India, China, Egypt, Natal, France, Sweden, or the United States. 
There is, as a matter of fact, no really good reason why people 
should not learn to know a new plant by its Latin name just as easily 
as by some common name. Latin names seem difficult only because 
it has come to be the fashion to think of them as difficult. Once they 
[ee West Park Commissioners have felt for some time that while 
