fay 
The North Addition 
Perhaps the greatest disappointment of the year is the abortion 
of our plans for the improvement of the tract between Mt. Pros- 
pect Reservoir and the Brooklyn Museum, and fronting on Eastern 
Parkway. Ever since this tract of about three acres was incor- 
porated in the Botanic Garden in 1912 it has been, so to speak, 
under the plow. Grading it down to the street level left a surface 
of subsoil. The upper three or four inches have been converted 
into “top soil” by growing successive crops of barley and buck- 
wheat, and plowing them under, supplemented by several applica- 
tions of fertilizer. 
Owing to the ups and downs of financial conditions, referred 
to in earlier paragraphs, funds have never become available for 
the completion of the soil improvement, landscaping, and planting. 
Finally, in 1930, the Board of Estimate and Apportionment made 
an appropriation of $24,100 for this work. <As_ stated in my 
Report for 1931, the contract was twice advertised for public bids 
(in September and December, 1931), but each time the lowest 
bid received was in excess of the amount provided. Then came 
the financial crisis, and the City felt obliged to cancel the ap- 
propriation. The completion of this improvement is one of the 
most urgent needs of the Botanic Garden. With a minor excep- 
tion, this is our last undeveloped area. Its present condition de- 
tracts from the beauty and the educational effectiveness of the 
Garden as a whole. 
Local Flora Section 
This area is popularly known as the “ Native Wild Flower 
Garden.” As often stated before, it contains only species that 
grow wild within the Torrey Botanical Club range—roughly 
speaking, within a radius of one hundred miles of Brooklyn. Dr. 
Svenson, curator in charge, has worked out a plan for an ecological 
treatment, so that, as previously noted, not only are the local flora 
trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants exhibited, but the subject of 
the relation of plants to their environment is also illustrated. It 
was felt that the subject of plant classification (systematic botany ) 
is amply illustrated in the General Systematic section, which 
occupies the main central portion of the grounds. 
