12 
another. But colleges, universities, and botanic gardens, though 
they may wax and wane, tend to persist, because they meet per- 
sistent, fundamental human needs. 
It is important to keep it always in mind that we are building at 
the Brooklyn Botanic Garden the kind of an institution that tends 
to permanency. If we keep this thought before us we may be 
troubled, but not discouraged, when the Garden, with the rest of 
the world, is carried by the current of world affairs into a deep 
trough of financial reverses. We shall also form the habit of 
always taking the “long view,” to which I have referred in a 
preceding report. The most solid financial and educational founda- 
tions are laid, and the most efficient and enduring superstructure 
is begun, only when the vista of the far-distant future is kept 
before the mind’s eyes. 
THe Firsr Quarter CENTuRY 
On May 13-16, 1935, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden celebrated 
its twenty-fifth anniversary. The “ birthday” of the Garden has 
been arbitrarily chosen as July 1, the date when the first appoint- 
ment to the Garden’s personnel took effect. The first report cov- 
ered the eighteen months from July 1, 1910 to December 31, 1911. 
By the end of 1935, the Garden had completed the first six months, 
only, of its twenty-sixth year. The four days’ program of the 
celebration comprises Appendix 11 of this report (p. 174). 
The Garden has every reason to feel gratified at the response 
of the botanical world on the occasion 
of its anniversary celebration. All the meetings were well at- 
jan 
of its local constituency anc 
tended, notes of congratulation and commendation were received 
from most of the leading botanic gardens of the world, and the 
publicity accorded the events in the daily papers and scientifie and 
educational press was extensive, and served to make the work of 
the Garden better understood by a wider circle of friends, nation- 
wide and international. 
One of the main purposes of recording last year’s achievements 
in an annual report is to reveal the nature of the undertaking and 

thereby to inspire confidence, and to arouse in the reader a wish 
to become an active participant in the work. Such, also, is the 
