o4 
Syllabs of Lectures to Children —The Brooklyn Botanic Garden 
believes that lecturing to large audiences of children yields smaller 
educational results than many other methods of instruction. This 
is specially true if the lecture is not followed up by class-room in- 
struction in small groups. In order to facilitate and to help insure 
this follow-up work in the schools we have inaugurated the plan 
of giving to every pupil and teacher a printed syllabus of each pub- 
lic lecture. Syllabus No. 1, for example, is on the subject of 
Rubber. The children are first taken into the conservatory to see 
living specimens of the various plants that yield rubber, including 
the Brazilian rubber tree, Hevea braziliensis; then the illustrated 
lecture is given, at the close of which the syllabus is distributed. 
The main facts presented in the lecture are thus made available in 
accurate and permanent form for review and for reference and 
study in the schoolroom. In this way more lasting and more sub- 
stantial results are obtained by the lecture. Syllabi are in process 
of preparation on all the lectures given at. the Garden to children. 
Loan Lectures—VThe curator of public instruction has called 
attention, in his appended report, to the inauguration of a system 
of loaning lantern slides to schools. The slides are arranged in 
groups on different subjects, and each set, in a neat leather case, 
is accompanied by a full outline of the lecture for the use of the 
teacher. 
School for Gardeners 
During the year ten new students registered in the course for 
the training of gardeners. These men all came through the United 
States Veterans Bureau, formerly the Federal Board for Voca- 
tional Education. At the close of the year there were six men in 
attendance. Six were dropped for lack of qualifications to con- 
tinue, all new men being registered on trial. Four of the men 
completed their two years of resident training, and all of them 
secured at once good places with attractive salaries. One of our 
graduates stood sixth on the list of civil-service candidates for a 
position as gardener in Prospect Park, having been in competition 
in the examination with men of 15-20 years of practical experi- 
ence. One man was taken on here at the Botanic Garden and the 
others are on private places. 
