Ze 
—_ 
of the Botanic Garden merely as a park or playground. Our re- 
striction, so far as possible, of the use of our plantations for botanic 
garden ends is appreciated by thousands who come here for that 
purpose. 
Bureau of Public Information.—This service has now become 
world-wide. Requests are continually being received for informa- 
tion on all aspects of plant life and horticulture—technical, eco- 
nomic, and popular—from individuals, institutions, corporations, 
governments. The service is not wholly a one-sided 
_— 
and nationa 
one, for these contacts frequently result in the enrichment of our 
library, herbarium, or collections of living plants. Much of the 
time of the library staff is absorbed in supplying citations to litera- 
ture and other information, but all departments are involved, espe- 
cially the horticulturist and members of the department of plants. 
The horticulturist reports (p. 92) that during 1933 he has received 
and answered 746 requests for information, involving the writing 
of 242 letters in addition to rephes given in person and by tele- 
phone. (Cf. p. 102.) The library replied to more than 500 re- 
quests. On conservative estimate the Garden received and an- 
swered during the year not less than 1,500 inquiries. 
RESEARCH 
It is a fact that, in times of financial stress, appropriations for 
research are apt to be the first to be reduced. Lack of knowledge 
is one of the major causes of the world’s ills, but when the world 
goes on the rocks of financial disaster, it helps to economize by 
withdrawing support from those activities whose object is the in- 
crease of knowledge and the spread of enlightenment. In more 
than one country during the past two or three years, appropriations 
for research have been the first to be reduced or have been reduced 
most drastically. [low few people realize that from the dawn of 
civilization to the present year, scientific research has, at every 
step of the way, been one of the driving forces of progress. 
Not a person living passes a day of his life without becoming a 
debtor to botanical research. 
3ut the results of research have not only been knowledge. The 
application of that knowledge has been the foundation of wealth; 
the lack of it, economic distress. The American Chemical Society 
