BROOKLYN BOTANIC GARDEN RECORD 
VOL. XXXI APRIL, 1942 
THIRTY-FIRST ANNUAL REPORT 
Ol THE 
BROOKLYN BOTANIC GARDEN 
1941 
REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR! 
To THE BoTANIC GARDEN GOVERNING COMMITTEE: 
I have the honor to present herewith my Thirty-first Annual 
Report. 
In 1941 the Brooklyn Botanic Garden entered upon the fourth 
decade of its existence in a world that, in some respects, differs 
from that of 1910 as greatly as 1910 differed from the year 300 
B.C., when Aristotle and Theophrastus were laying the founda- 
tions of botany in Athens. In 1910 automobiles were as scarce 
as horses are now, motion pictures had hardly reached the 
‘“nickleodeon”’ stage, and the radio had not yet come into public 
there was no such thing as broadcasting. There were no 
The European and Asiatic 
” and ‘‘totalitarian- 
use 
income taxes; women had no vote. 
nations were all governed by kings, “‘facism 
ism,’ as such, had not been heard of, communism was a philo- 
sophical doctrine and not a political fact. Now all these things 
are part of the warp and woof of daily life. 
The contrast is as great in the intellectual sphere. 
Newtonian mechanics held almost undisputed sway in physics, 
relativity was a new conception, the transmutation of one chem1- 
cal element into another was still only a dream, not an accom- 
plished fact, the atom had only just been shown to be particulate, 
! Front cover page, ‘Roses of Yesterday’ (Bronze), in the Rose Garden. 
Given, 1937, by Mrs. Walter V. Crawford, Greenwich, Conn, 
In 1910 the 
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