49 
This condition is due solely to lack of sufficient funds. 
Our ideal is to create here the most beautiful spot in Greater 
New York 
tained, and with its value enhanced many fold by the educational 
and scientific work carried on. 
a garden of rare beauty and design, perfectly main- 
It is hardly possible to exaggerate the civic and educational im- 
portance of the realization of this ideal 
what it would mean as 
a standard of excellence for public parks and gardens, as a 
stimulus to private gardening and interest in horticulture, as a 
contribution to public education and the advancement of a knowl- 
edge and love of plant life. 
Said George Brown Good, in the Smithsonian Report for 1897, 
“ The National Museum has 300,000 visitors a year, each of whom 
carries away a certain number of new thoughts.’ What thoughts 
and ideas would one carry away from visiting a perfectly main- 
tained public garden? No portion of the American public has 
ever yet had such an opportunity, for no American public garden 
— 
has ever had sufficient funds to make perfect maintenance possible. 
Who Should Be Interested? 
With the constantly increasing number of persons interested in 
horticulture and all aspects of plant life throughout the country, 
and especially in the vicinity of this city, is it not reasonable to 
expect a sympathetic appreciation of the importance of the ideal 
here set forth, and generous support for its realization? As this 
interest spreads and deepens there is bound to be increasing sup- 
port of botanic gardens. 
What Makes a City Great? 
During the year the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce issued a 
folder calling attention to the industrial and commercial rank of 
Brooklyn. The increase in population during the past ten years 
was in excess of 600,c00. This is at the average rate of 160 per- 
sons or nearly 4o families of four persons each per day for a 
decade, making Brooklyn the third largest municipal city in the 
western hemisphere, exceeded by only Greater New York (of 
which Brooklyn is a part) and Chicago. As a shipping center 
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