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Those of you who have travelled in Europe must have been 
impressed by the multiplicity of such gardens. They began there 
in the form of monastic gardens, in which the so-called “ simples,” 
used in primitive medicine, were cultivated. Then they came out 
into the open as city gardens, chiefly for the enjoyment of the 
people and to beautify the city. Finally, they became also scien- 
tific, and gradually led to such great establishments as the Botanic 
Gardens at Rome, Geneva, and Paris, the great modern gardens 
on the outskirts of Berlin and Munich, and that greatest of all 
garden establishments, the Kew Gardens of London. These are 
but conspicuous illustrations of what almost every European city 
had developed before we began to think of garden establishments. 
I wish to speak of three conspicuous contributions that such an 
establishment can make, not all of which are appreciated as they 
should be. There is no better audience for this purpose than the 
friends and supporters of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, which 
has achieved more in certain directions than any other garden in 
the country. I wish you to realize, not only that your support 
is justified, but also that perhaps you have builded better than 
you knew. I shall speak of these three contributions in what [ 
conceive to be the inverse order of their importance, in the sense 
that the superficial, however desirable, is less important than the 
fundamental, 
1. The first is the social contribution, “Social” is a very in- 
clusive word. Anything that contributes to the welfare of a com- - 
munity, in any way, is a social contribution. In this sense, the 
results of education and of religion are also social. I am using 
the word:in no such general sense, however, but simply to include 
the betterment of city conditions for living, 
A botanic garden is a social contribution because it is one 
answer to the problem of congestion; It is not sufficient to have 
Open spaces, even when those spaces are beautified as parks. 
There cannot be too many of these, but something more is needed. 
I wonder if you all appreciate what the touch of nature means. 
Tt is something more than open space for breathing. It is a kind 
of elixir that helps men to be men. The Garden is a museum 
of nature, not merely an area left to nature. In it there are 
assembled the representatives of many regions, so that it gives 
