SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT 

 BROOKLYN BOTANIC GARDEN 



REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR 

 To the Botanic Garden Governing Committee: 



I have the honor to present herewith the seventeenth annual re- 

 port of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, for the year 1927. 



The New Rose Garden 



" Who ever reads an annual report? " This rhetorical question 

 is usually asked with the implication that the answer is, " Nobody." 

 Too often, alas, such is the case. Written primarily to be read, 

 annual reports often serve chiefly as safety deposit boxes, where 

 things deemed valuable by the writer are safely stored away. But 

 authors of such reports have their reward, not in the multitude of 

 readers, but in the character of a select few— possibly only one 

 or two— readers. It is the double purpose of an annual report, 

 not only to record what has been done, but also what should be 

 don< The imporfaiia of this i illustrated in the following brief 

 history of the contribution for the new Rose Garden. 



The preceding annual report of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden 

 had been issued only a few days when Mr. Walter V. Cranford 

 happened to pick up a copy of it in the office of a business asso- 

 ciate who is a trustee of the Garden. His attention was arrested 

 by an illustration bearing the legend, "Proposed Rose Garden." 

 The conversation that ensued was followed by a conference at the 

 Botanic Garden, one result of which was a correspondence which 

 included the following letters: 



1 Brooklyn Botanic Ga I A ol XVII, No. 2. April, 1928. 



