81 
understanding of the schools. The fall work for visiting classes 
followed its usual lines. 
Some figures from our greenhouse work might be considered in 
the light of progressive service. All plants used for classroom 
study and supply to schools were propagated in our own green- 
houses. In the fall of 1934, 2,680 plants were in the greenhouses 
ready for fall work, an increase of 1,035 plants over 1933. Over 
25,000 seedlings were raised in the spring, and nearly 600 pots of 
bulbs, including calla lily, Easter lily, and lily-of-the valley were 
planted last autumn. These figures are not so astonishing when 
it is known that 3,715 people, children and adults, worked in our 
greenhouses in 1934. This figure includes Mr. Free’s classes as 
well as the classes in the Department of Elementary Instruction. 
A course for adults in Fundamentals of Gardening during the 
spring, given by Miss Dorward and myself, had afrégistration of 
are 
A great amount of material from our greenhouses is distributed 
to schools to aid them in their work. Over 1,500 seedlings were 
sent to school gardens. 
The amount of study Pere sent out and aiGeibited to 
schools has increased greatly. Two hundred twelve requests were 
received for such material, representing 3,860 teachers and 171,795 
children. Because of the great amount of detail’of this work and 
its time-taking element, Miss Julia Best, who assisted in the same 
line in the Department of Public Instruction last year, has worked 
with us too since October of 1934. 
The appointment in elementary schools of ‘‘ Nature Curators”’ 
made a great difference in the demands made upon us for con- 
ferences to plan lessons in nature study for the schools, and so 
we changed somewhat our Nature Study course of this year to 
meet these conditions. The course was planned to give direct 
help for classroom lessons. Beginning in the fall of 1934, thirty 
hours’ work were given before Christmas, to be continued through- 
out the spring of 1935. This is an experiment to give Nature 
Curators a more definite training for immediate needs. This is 
the only Nature Study course given in this City, I believe, that is 
planned directly to meet this urgent need. 
The seedwork has been put on a more business-like basis, but 
