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Needs of the Garden 
Previous to April, 1917, the most pressing needs of the Garden 
were material. As Archimedes’s sole condition for moving the 
world was that he should be given a suitable place on which to 
stand, so our conditio sine quo non for building up conservatory 
collections, and the prosecution of research and public education, 
was the possession of adequate housing accommodations—a place 
to stand. By the completion of our laboratory building and plant 
houses we are now fairly well domiciled, and, while a large 
amount of construction work remains to be done, especially on 
the grounds, the next few years should witness a more vigorous 
development and extension of the work for which our material 
— 

equipment has been provided. 
Research—Fundamental to all else is research. The greatest 
need of botany, the greatest need of the people from botany, is a 
deeper and wider knowledge of the principles of plant life and 
their practical application, in agriculture, horticulture, floricul- 
—" 
ture, forestry, plant pathology, and other applied sciences. The 
judicial expenditure of very large sums for botanical research 
can be justified, not only from the scientific, but also from the 
financial point of view. Here is not the place to enlarge upon 
this theme, but the director of the Garden will be very glad to 
give concrete suggestions and detailed information to anyone 
who may wish to learn further of our aims and ideals in this 
direction, and to become acquainted with the nature of the prob- 
lems to be solved and the urgency of their solution. As I have 
elsewhere emphasized,* no error could be more disastrous than 

an attempt to build here a superstructure of public education con- 
cerning plants, without a suitable foundation in botanical re- 
search. The proper development and care of our collections de- 
mand this, as well as does the work of public education, and 
the efficiency of our staff. Plans already outlinedt should be 
matured at once for meeting this need by creating and filling cer- 
tain new curatorships, and providing for the necessary research 
* BrooKLYN Bor. Garp. Recorp 6: 121-130. July, 1917. 
+ BrooKLtyn Bor. Garp. Recorp 6: 83-89. April, 1917. 
