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obvious to all who watch, but hundreds of intelligent people may, 
for example, pass by a sensitive plant, or a Venus’s fly trap in the 
conservatory without learning anything of the fascinating power 
of motion of these plants. Instances might be multiplied without 
number. 
As soon as funds can be secured, arrangements should be made 
for a docent or teaching guide to conduct parties through the con- 
servatories and grounds at stated hours, and also at special times 
by appointment. This would be specially valuable on Sunday 
afternoons. Such a service is offered now to a limited extent, 
and for a fee to members of the Botanic Garden and others, but 
on certain days and occasions it should be extended to the general 
public without charge or for a nominal fee, as experience might 
dictate. 
Needs of the Garden 
Provision for Research—Until more nearly adequate pro- 
vision is made for botanical investigation at the Brooklyn Botanic 
Garden no other subject can take precedence in a recital of the 
Garden’s needs. The situation just now calls for a slight reor- 
ganization of our staff, with provision for additional assistants, 
and a redistribution of duties, with a view to affording curators 
more time for research. Certain curatorships, such, for example, 
as that of public instruction and librarian, will always be chiefly 
administrative, others will be partly administrative, and it is anti- 
cipated that, in the near future, research curatorships may be 
established. It is a strange historical fact that much, if not most, 
of the world’s advancement in knowledge and understanding has 
resulted from investigations carried out by men who were really 
supposed to be doing something else, and were able to conduct 
their research only at odd hours or during vacation—outside of 
“official time,” and often, if not commonly, with inadequate, 
equipment and under unfavorable and discouraging or even un- 
healthy circumstances. It is almost, if not quite, within the his- 
tory of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden that the profession of 
scientific investigator has come to be generally recognized, even 
among educational institutions. 
