De 
mek 
members its first folder announcing radio broadcasts for the year 
— 
on aspects of plant life and the activities of the Garden. Members 
of the Garden personnel began broadcasting several years before 
1936. These talks appear to command a steadily increasing num- 
ber of listeners, especially those on the program of the Radio 
Garden Club. A list of 37 talks given during the year may be 
found beginning on page 127 of this report. The “ fan mail” 
resulting from these broadcasts steadily increases. 
A total of 131 lectures, addresses, and scientific papers have 
been given by the Garden personnel during the year. 
Classes —Special attention is called to the attendance at regular 
— 
3otanic Garden classes of 65,948, and at classes brought by 
teachers from local schools of 54,119, a total of 120,067 for all 
classes and lectures—an increase of 4884 over 1935. 
Elementary [ducation 
There are no statistics to indicate what percentage of boys and 
— 
girls of eight to eighteen vears of age would attend school volun- 
tarily for a series of years, but it is a significant fact that nearly 
66,000 children of that age level came voluntarily and eagerly to 
the Botanic Garden for serious study during 1936. The number 
has fluctuated around that total for many years, and one of the 
inmost gratifying facts is that many of these boys and girls have 
come regularly for as many as five to seven consecutive years. 
Education that makes an appeal of that kind must certainly be 
effective. The appended report of the curator of elementary 
instruction gives interesting details of this work for 1936. 
Extra Mural Activities—School used to be thought of as a 
place in a community. Now it is coming to be more and more 
recognized as an activity in the community. Phe work must, of 
course, center in some place where the activities are administered 
and correlated. The Brooklyn Botanic Garden, supported in part 
by Municipal appropriations, has always conceived it as part of 
its duty to render whatever cducational service it could to all 
residents of the City, and not merely to those who could come to 
the Garden. As is now well known, our “ extra mural ” activities 
include the ‘ bureau of public information,” which is, in fact, the 
entire personnel of the Garden, functioning by mail, telephone, and 
