49 
has been turned over to the Botanic Garden authorities as a per- 
manent fund to be invested and the income used for the up-keep 
of the memorial and its immediate surroundings. By vote of the 
Governing Committee this fund will be included in the Endow- 
ment Increment Plan of the Garden. 
Ninth Annual Spring Inspection 
Nearly 600 trustees, members, members of the Woman’s Auxil- 
iary, and friends attended the Ninth Annual Spring Inspection 
on Tuesday, May 9. The new Boys and Girls Club Room in the 
Laboratory Building, the gift of the late Mrs. George D. Pratt 
and Mr. Pratt, was formally opened on this occasion. There were 
also exhibited nine of the minature gardens designed by mem- 
bers of the Garden Club of America, and first exhibited at the 
1923 Annual Flower Show in Manhattan. Other exhibits included 
a collection of photographs of small gardens, loaned by The So- 
ciety of Little Gardens; a set of colored posters showing the use 
of plants and plant parts in design, made by the nature-art class 
of high school pupils at the Botanic Garden under the direction of 
Miss P. F. Pond, chairman of the art department of the Girls 
High School, Brooklyn. The Pasteur-Mendel exhibit, first in- 
stalled in connection with the Pasteur-Mendel centenary pro- 
gram held at the Garden on April 19, was also shown, with several 
new exhibits added. On the north wall of the exhibit room were 
displayed 33 beautifully colored photographs illustrating various 
phases of forest conservation, and loaned by the U. S. Bureau of 
Forestry. 
Vandalism 
The destruction of public property, and the misuse of public 
buildings and grounds by the public is almost, if not quite, beyond 
the belief of one who has never had the responsibility of adminis- 
tering public buildings and grounds. The vast majority of the 
public is, of course (and forttinately), law abiding and apprecia- 
tive; otherwise it would hardly be possible to open to public use 
beautifully planted parks and gardens, and beautiful public build- 
ings and collections. The small minority never identifies itself 
with the public—never seems to have any sense of joint owner- 
5 
