EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT 
OF TILE 
BROOKLYN BOTANIC GARDEN 
1928 * 
REPORM OF THE DIRECTOR 
To THE Botanic GARDEN GOVERNING COMMITTEE 
I have the honor to present herewith the eighteenth annual re- 
port of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, for the year 1928. 
Ecology of Botanic Gardens 
The principles of botanical science are not restricted in their 
application to the kingdom of plants. They apply, also, to the 
realms of education, economics, and finance. One department 
of botany, for example, is Ecology. The word is akin to the more 
familiar term, Economy (the law of the house) ; it means, liter- 
ally, the science of the home life (of plants or of animals). It 
is a fundamental PLS of Ecology that an organism must cor- 
with the various factors of its en- 
respond with its surroundings 
vironment; otherwise it weakens or dies. 
So it is with such an organism (organization) as a botanic gar- 
den: if it is to become strong it must develop in harmony with 
its environment, and in particular with local needs. 
Perhaps the most common conception of a botanic garden is 
the restricted one which reads a literal meaning into the name, 
and regards the institution merely as a garden. Gardens are real 
needs in a civilized society, and ornamental or flower. gardens no 
less so than vegetable gardens, for beauty is an essential element 
in human life. Any urban community that has no botanic garden 
lacks an important cultural asset, and so, merely by maintaining 
1BrooKLyN BotaNic GARDEN Recorp. Vol. XVIII, No. 2, March, 1929. 
17 
