28 



What the Garden Has Meant 



(a) Investigations. — Plans for the scientific work of the Gar- 

 den provide for placing the emphasis largely on the experimental 

 phases of the science, such as genetics and plant breeding, plant 

 diseases, ecology, and physiology. In systematic botany attention 

 has been given chiefly to the local flora, including the region 

 roughly indicated by a circle of lOO miles radius from Brooklyn 

 as a center. The curator of plants, Mr. Taylor, the first mem- 

 ber to be appointed to the scientific staff, has devoted most of his 

 attention to this latter work. The results of, this study are em- 

 bodied in a Memoir of 592 pages, and in numerous papers pub- 

 lished in current botanical periodicals. An intensive study of the 

 vegetation of Long Island is now in progress. 



The second curatorship to be filled was that of public instruc- 

 tion, and the scientific work of the first incumbent, Dr. E. W. 

 Olive, was in plant diseases. During 1916 Dr. Olive spent about 

 ten weeks in Porto Rico collecting and studying the fungi (espe- 

 cially the plant rusts) and the plant diseases of that island. A 

 number of forms new to science were discovered, our crypto- 

 gamic herbarium was enriched by several hundred specimens, and 



duplicate sets of specimens were prepared for exchange with 

 other institutions. 



■ In July and August, 191 7, Dr. Olive spent some weeks in 

 Texas investigating a sudden outbreak of rust disease on cotton 

 for the U. S. Department of Agriculture. Fart of the sunnner 



■ 



of iyi8 was spent in plant disease work in New York, Virginia, 

 and Pennsylvania, in cooperation with the Plant Disease Survey 

 and Cereal Disease offices of the U. S. Department of Agricul- 

 ture, the Pennsylvania State Department of Agriculture, and 

 other institutions. Assistance was also ^iven in the investigation 



^. vv.^x ^i^ Lii^ lHV»„OLig 



of the new and serious potato-wart disease which made its ap- 

 pearance in Pennsylvania. Some of the scientific results of Dr. 

 Olive's work are embodied in three papers, which have appeared 

 as Brooklyn Botanic Garden Contributions, Nos. 6 and 17, and 

 in volume one of the Garden Memoirs. 



w 



The third curatorial appointment was that of Dr. O. E. White, 



. to the curatorship of plant breeding. ^This work has been based 



largely upon the garden pea, Indian corn, castor oil plant, and 



