34 
The approximate cost of each illustrated guide should not ex- 
ceed $600.00. These would be for, free distribution to Botanic 
Garden members, and for sale to others. 
Investigations during 1928 
“ Scientific research is a chief end of man for it is a supreme 
way of glorifying God,” said an editorial writer in the New York 
Times for November 17, 1928. “ What we know is but little, 
what we do not know is immense,” said the great mathematician 
and astronomer, La Place. The realm of the unknown is so vast, 
and the limitations of the investigator are so great that human 
knowledge progresses by advances that are, comparatively speak- 
ing, infinitesimally small. This is one of the reasons, perhaps 
the chief reason, why it is difficult to interpret scientific research 
to the layman, especially to business men. Annual dividends seem 
to them small, and the business, therefore, not prospering. Al- 
most every important advance of science is the result of several 
to many years of painstaking study, often by several investigators. 
This element of time, however, is not peculiar to science. Recall- 
ing that Darwin labored twenty years in preparation for writing 
his “ Origin,’ we should also remember that Lorenzo Ghiberti 
worked forty years, “with a patience and industry more than 
extreme,” to complete the two doors of San Giovanni, in Florence. 
One of the drawbacks to effective scientific work in governmental 
institutions, such for example as our Agricultural Experiment 
Stations, is the demand of legislators and voters to be shown re- 
sults at yearly intervals. That the labors of an entire year may 
have served to reveal chiefly what isn’t so, rather than what és SO; 
to uncover more new problems than have been solved, is often 
difficult for them to understand. Such results, while invaluable 
in the laboratory, are not applicable in garden and orchard and 
field; while they may inspire the’ investigator, they are not apt 
to inspire adequate appropriations of funds to carry on the work. 
flerein lies one of the important reasons and needs for privately 
endowed institutions of research, such as our botanic gardens. 
This need was emphasized by the Secretary of Agriculture, Mr. 
Jardine, in the quotation on the front cover page of Brooklyn 
Botanic Garden Recorp for July 1927, where he referred to bo- 
