14 



meet the question, "Qui bono/", not only from tliosc wlio are 

 hardly in a position to understand the true answer. l)nt also from 

 those who sympathetieallv and sineerel\- wish to know, dhey 

 must also t;-ive conviucino- answers annually when puhlie officials, 

 entrusted with puhlie money, are asked to make a]:ipropriations 

 eommensnrale in auiount ^\•itll Avliat the trustees and stall know 

 lo he the \-alue and uses of botanic gardens, the extent to which 

 the puhlie needs them, and how lari:;el\- it is responding- to the 

 o])])ortunities which the garden affords. 



In previdus reports and elsewhere we have tal-:en occasion to 

 suggest what a botanic garden is. Certain experieuces suggest 

 that it may not he amiss to stale what a botanic garden is not. 

 This nui}-, ])erhaps, be done most tersely 1)\- listin.g a few of the 

 requests, received during the i)ast year and previously, to which 

 we have, of course, been obliged to give negative answers. 



LhntsiKil Kcqiicsls 



1. For the installation of a])])aratus to pro\-ide outdoor radio 

 concerts. 



2. i<"or bo\s to plav marbles in the (iarden. 



3. h'or the use of the grounds to stage a ])ageant. 



4. h^)r a cricket team to use the es]^lanade as a cricket field. 



5. h"or the construction of a bridle patli through the Garden, 

 t). For permission to hold Ahi_\-])ole (lances on the lawn. 



7. J^\)r the staging of a motion picture in the Japanese Ciarden. 



8. To set aside a ])ortion of the Garden as a j^ilavground. 



9. For permissiou to erect a large tent for the ]nn-pose of hold- 

 ing a militarv exhibit. 



10. To hold a kermess in the (Jru'den for the pm'])ose of raising 

 limds tor another organization. 



4die list could he ])r()longed. All of these re(|uests show that 

 those who made them had never understood what a botanic garden 

 essentially is: Not a ])ark, not a ])la\-ground, not a potential build- 

 ing- site, not a mere o])en s])ace waiting to be put to some use. 



-b'very }-ear it is necessar>' for us to ex])l,ain to several well- 

 meaning ])eople that a botanic garden, like a museum, is a scien- 

 tific and educational institution; that its grounds constitute, in 

 fact, an outdoors museum of living pl.ants, and that, while it 



