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A year ago a policeman noticed a middle-aged man late one 
evening bending over in the midst of the children’s gardens at 
the south end of the Botanic Garden, and seemingly disturbing 
the earth there. His actions excited the suspicions of the patrol- 
man, who proceeded to investigate, and found that the man was 
father of a boy who had started one of the children’s gardens. 
The boy had refused the opportunity of a fortnight in the country 
for fear that his garden would suffer in his absence, but he had 
finally consented to go on the vacation on the pledge of his father 
that he would look after the little garden during the boy’s absence. 
Needless to say, the officer left him to continue his work. 
I now take pleasure in introducing to you Mr. A. Augustus 
Healy, president of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences. 
ADDRESS 
By A. Aucustus HEALy, 
President of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences 
The completion of this beautiful and commodious laboratory 
building which, in connection with those that have preceded it, 
will enable the work of our Botanic Garden more adequately to 
go forward, marks an epoch in the history of the Brooklyn In- 
stitute of Arts and Sciences. The dedication of these buildings, 
which we make tonight to the high purposes for which they have 
been erected, is equally impressive and significant whether viewed 
in its relation to the progress and expansion of the work of the 
Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences as an organization, or 
viewed in the light of the great public benefit to be derived from 
the establishment in this great community of a well equipped 
Botanic Garden to which the people can freely resort for a knowl- 
edge of the wonders of plant life, and which can so efficiently 
supplement the theoretical instruction of the schools with the far 
more vivid and forcible impressions to be had from seeing the 
living thing, with its wonderful power to engage the attention 
of the young. 
Thinking of it as a part of the Institute as a whole, I am re- 
