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of the Garden and inquire how they should proceed in order to 
become members. 
For fuller information consult the General Guide, Gardens 
within a Garden, published in May, 1929. This guide contains a 
folded map of the Plantations. Guides to the various sections are 
also in preparation. 
Conservatories 
The Conservatories, as in the case of most botanic gardens, do 
not contain horticultural or floral displays, such as one may find 
in the conservatories of a public park, but are devoted to species 
(as distinguished from horticultural varieties) of plants from 
other climates and not hardy in Brooklyn. Special emphasis is 
placed on plants of commercial or economic value. Particular 
attention has been given to labeling and the use of “ story labels ” 
in the Conservatories. 
Public Lectures 
Public lectures are given from time to time on plant life and 
gardening, but the educational value of such lectures has not been 
found to be as great as results from courses of instruction. In 
Greater New York one may attend a lecture (either free or for 
only a nominal charge) almost every day of the year and at almost 
every hour of the day and evening. In addition to the lectures 
that one must go out to, in some hall, there are the radio talks that 
may be heard at home, on every conceivable subject, beginning 
with the “daily dozen” when one rises in the morning and con- 
tinuing through the day (at meals and between meals) until the 
“bedtime story” at night. 
In view of this, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, while not defi- 
nitely abandoning public lectures, does not consider them a major 
feature of its educational program. It is particularly interesting 
to note that, while attendance at free botanical lectures has been 
only moderate and fluctuating in numbers, and composed of a 
noticeable percentage of “ repeaters ” and persons in the leisure of 
advancing years, the attendance at courses of instruction (includ- 
ing laboratory and field work), extending over several weeks, and 
for which a tuition fee is charged, has been increasingly large and 
composed of new students, in the prime of intellectual vigor and 
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