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Special Projects 
DeVries Window Tablet—\Vhen the names of botanists were 
chosen (in 1911) for the tablets on the frieze and under the win- 
dows of the Laboratory Building one window space was left blank 
in the group comprising the plant breeders, Koelreuter, Camer- 
arius, and Mendel, and the physiologists, Ingen-Housz and 
Sachs. This was to provide for the name of Hugo deVries, the 
great Dutch plant physiologist and geneticist. The original plan 
provided that no name of a living botanist should be included. 
Professor deVries died in 1935, and the tablet bearing his name 
was designed and made by the WPA studio at the Brooklyn 
Museum, and put in place about December 15, 1937. All the 
spaces, under the windows and along the frieze, are now filled. 
It may be recalled in this connection that, in 1912, Professor 
deVries planted the Sweet Gum tree (Liguidambar Styraciflua) in 
the northern part of the Local Flora Section of the Garden. 
Acoustic Treatment for Room 330.—\When the Laboratory 
Building was completed, in 1917, it was found that several of the 
rooms were unsatisfactory acoustically. In 1935, WPA workmen 
placed ‘‘Acoustile’’ (of expanded mica) on the walls of the main 
auditorium. The Botanic Garden supplied the tile, obtained 
from the Johns Manville Company, and the latter company 
kindly loaned the services of one of their experts to instruct the 
— 
WPA men. The result was so satisfactory that arrangements 
were made in 1937 to have the tile placed on the ceiling of Room 
330. The WPA again supplied the foreman and workmen who 
began on March 22, and completed the work in about ten days. 
The acoustics of that room are now as satisfactory as could be 
desired. 
Tlorticulture in the New York World’s Fair, 1939 
In December, 1936, the director, attending a lecture on the 
New York World’s Fair, 1939, by Mr. Stephen F. Voorhees, chief 
designer, learned that the plans did not call for any special 
horticultural exhibit, or any recognition of horticulture beyond 
the incidental planting of the fair grounds. The matter was 
immediately presented to several organizations, including the 
Horticultural Society of New York, and the latter organization 
appointed a special committee to look into the matter. The 
