46 
reports have recorded in detail. The fact is mentioned here 
merely to round out the picture in looking backward. 
Ideals for the Future 
But looking backward shows us now, as it did ten years ago, 
that we are further from our goal than we are from our starting 
point. 
A Perfectly Maintained Garden 
The owners of private places realize how essential it is to have 
constant contact with nature and with beauty. Except beautiful 
natural scenery, nothing meets this fundamental human need more 
completely than a beautiful garden. 
For the majority of people in a great city like New York a 
private garden is quite impossible, and yet it is to their advantage, 
and so to the advantage of society as a whole, that this inborn 
love of plant life and beauty shall be satisfied. 
Municipal parks meet the need of open spaces for light, air, and 
recreation, but lack the features necessary to stimulate and foster 
an interest in gardening and in wild and cultivated plants. lor 
this a botanic garden is necessary. 
bs 
Iveryone familiar with the administration of public parks, am 
with their state of up-keep in most of our cities, realizes how far 
they fall below the standard and accomplishment of private places 
—below the standards of the park authorities, even, for it 1s 
probable that no park commissioner ever had appropriations suf- 
ficient for his own program and ideals. 
While giving full measure of credit for the broac 
pany 
programs of 
park development and the generous appropriations for such pur- 
poses in this city and elsewhere, it will doubtless be generally 
recognized that public officials and the general public in the average 
American city need to be aroused to a fuller appreciation of the 
importance of parks and public gardens, and to higher ideals of 
maintenance, beauty, and educational ends. 
A Wonderful Opportunity 
The Brooklyn Botanic Garden affords an opportunity for private 
munificence to provide a public garden as beautiful as our most 
