Ds 
why the petals of flowers are velvety, how the tulip gets its color, 
etc., etc. Few schools have time or opportunity for such work as 
this, for everything must be directed toward the final examina- 
tion. This work, called ‘Fun with the microscope”’ was offered 
for the first time in 1934 to a limited number of boys and girls 
as a special privilege or reward for having done work of superior 
merit in our other children’s courses. The curator of elementary 
instruction reports that it was a great success from the stand- 
point of enthusiastic response and interest. 
School Standards Raised by Botanic Garden Cooperation.—In 
his annual report to the City Superintendent of Schools, Mr. 
Emmanuel F. Van Dam, district superintendent for districts 
25-27, Brooklyn, stressed the importance of proper environment 
in reducing the percentage of juvenile delinquency. Citing the 
unfavorable conditions in certain districts where the percentage 
is high, Mr. Van Dam continued: 
‘In contrast to these conditions are the districts of P. S. 138, 
241, and 167 in the Eastern Parkway section. . . . The Brooklyn 
Botanic Garden, the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, and Prospect 
Park, near by, afford opportunities for the enrichment of the 
curriculum. Jn consequence, the academic standards and achieve- 
ments of these schools are of the highest.” 
THe LIBRARY 
‘‘A monastery without a library [armarium] is like a castle 
without an armory [armentartum],’’ was a current aphorism of the 
Middle Ages. To say that a library is equally indispensable to a 
botanic garden (as indeed to any scientific or educational institu- 
tion) would be only to state a truism. But in the medieval 
monasteries the books for the library were largely made on the 
spot by unpaid monks in the scriptorium. Some books were 
obtained by exchange or gift. 
While modern libraries are continually enriched by gifts and 
bequests, they are chiefly dependent on purchases. Here, as in 
other departments of an institution, the ideal condition is an 
endowment fund to insure a permanent annual income. 
