Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 62.djvu/203

Rh the garden and school of botany still closer through placing the former under the care of the directors of the university, it might be possible to ensure a much larger revenue for the needs of the garden since the university enjoys exemption from taxation under an old charter, which the new establishment could scarcely expect to secure with the existing constitutional provisions of the state. The arguments were well considered, but the saving of money—which to-day would amount to over $25,000 annually—did not weigh in Mr. Shaw's mind as contrasted with autonomy, and when he died, in August, 1889, his will was found to provide for the administration of the garden by an independent board of trustees, consisting of fifteen persons; ten named by the testator, and the other five holding office as trustees ex officio, in various capacities: The chancellor of Washington University, the bishop of the episcopal diocese of Missouri, the president of the public school board of St. Louis, the president of the Academy of Science of St. Louis, and the mayor of the city. Two additional honorary trustees, whom he evidently hoped to have assist in the inauguration of the establishment on broad lines, were named: Dr. Asa Gray and Professor Spencer F. Baird—neither of whom, unfortunately, survived Mr. Shaw, while it is evident from the phrasing of his will that their places were not intended to be filled. Two other citizens of St. Louis, named as trustees in the will, had died, also, before the testator, and it was held by the courts that their places should not be filled. Except for the members ex officio, the board of trustees is a self-perpetuating body, itself filling vacancies as they occur.

The testamentary provisions for the carrying out of Mr. Shaw's purposes do not differ in any essential respect from the plan sketched in the enabling act of 1859—passed because there was at that time some uncertainty as to the possibility of otherwise making the provisions