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school making up its own classes; second, by special lectures for 
entire classes. 
The first solution of the problem never can wholly solve it; for 
it too must be limited by the capacity of our building and our staff 
for instruction. It might be well to note here that schools so far 
removed as P. S. 36 and P. S. 148, requiring a trolley ride of 
three quarters of an hour to reach the Garden, feel that it 1s 
essential to have classes at the Garden, the children paying 
their own car fares for six consecutive weeks and never missing 
a lesson. No one is allowed to remain in a Garden class who 
does not represent his school in the best possible way. It also 
might be of interest to state here that P. 5. 89, a Gary school, 
avails itself of this opportunity for class work. At the present 
time we have a waiting list for classes desiring work and made 
up by the school principal. These classes are not the Friday and 
Saturday classes scheduled in the Prospectus as our regular ones, 
but are quite separate and put in at the special request of schools. 
School lectures at the Garden developed not only from an 
actual and imperative need for handling larger numbers, but also 
because a Botanic Garden, supported in part by municipal appro- 
priations, ought to assist in the nature study teaching of the city 
schools. Therefore, talks on certain subjects prescribed in the 
city course of study were offered because we had lantern slides 
and living plant material to illustrate such subjects, and green- 
house and laboratory facilities to illustrate simple ways of doing 
things in class-rooms. Two sets of these talks have been offered 
to the schools, one in the spring, the other in the fall. The sub- 
jects are as follows: - 
TALKS GIVEN TO SCHOOL CLASSES AT THE BOTANIC 
GARDEN 
April to June 
GRADES 3A AND 3B 
1. Common wild flowers in bloom. (Wild Flower Garden, May-June 
only 
2. Common trees. (Field trip, in the Botanic Garden.) 
3. Seeds and seedlings. (Experiments.) 
4. Methods of propagating plants. (Greenhouse. ) 
s. Formation of soil. (Demonstrations.) 
