540 AVERY, JR. 



enjoy learning from someone who knows, someone who can make learning 

 interesting and easy. Above all, they like to learn by doing. 



The people who are challenged by this hobby are as varied as the plants 

 they choose to grow. Enrolled in Brooklyn Botanic Garden courses, for ex- 

 ample, are doctors, lawyers, business people, tradesmen, nurses, secretaries, 

 and many housewives. These amateur gardeners are eager to exchange experi- 



400 



300 



?P 200 



i 100 - 



MUSEUMS 



^^^^^60^ GENERAL 



1890 1910 



Year 



1950 



Fig. 3. Museums. 368 museum buildings were constructed in the United States 

 over the period 1850-1950. {Data from Museum Buildings, Vol. I, by Laurence 

 Vail Coleman. 298 pp. American Association of Museums, Washington, D.C., 1950. 

 All graph data compiled by Charlotte Mentges.) 



ences, learn of new varieties, and try new methods. Whether house-plant cul- 

 ture, flower arrangement, orchid growing, or flower painting, working with 

 plants is, in the civilized world, probably the nearest thing to a universal 

 avocation. 



What about traditional botany? A great many people who come to take 

 Botanic Garden courses tell us they wish they had studied botany in college 

 so they would now know plants. They are thinking chiefly of the shrubs and 

 trees used in landscaping today. But had they studied traditional college 

 botany, there is about one chance in a hundred that they would have learned 



