The Missouri Botanical Garden is on the small side as botanical gardens go -- less than 100 acres -- but it is well  worth a visit for many reasons. Although they don't bill themselves as an "arboretum" they have plenty of trees! When Henry Shaw started the garden in 1859 it was virtually a treeless piece of Missouri prairie. Now they have 4,973 trees representing 1,096 taxa. The oldest tree is a bald cypress planted in 1874. And the tallest one (in 2011) was a pin oak that measured 125 feet tall. A great place to enjoy the trees and their shade is in the English woodland garden -- but there are plenty of trees to be found throughout the grounds.

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       They have several gardens devoted to plants from specific countries: Japanese, Bavarian (specializes in Alpine plants), Ottoman, English woodland, German and Chinese. I was lucky enough to be there when their extensive day lily collection was in full bloom (mid-June). They also have notable collections of magnolias, virburnum and dogwoods. 
         I was particularly pleased with the excellent signage identifying trees, shrubs and flowers. It is a pet peeve of mine that so many botanical gardens don't do this very well. But every single plant I sought an identification tag for -- had one!
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