18 
“Tam sending my deepest gratitude for your extensive scientific 
activity, and for the large educational work developed in your in- 
stitution that [ had the opportunity to observe during my visit to 
America in 1927. I have to confess that I have been inspired in 
many ways by your example in our own activity and organization 
work.” 
“The Botanical Institute... offers its sincere congratula- 
tions upon this important occasion, and begs to express its earnest 
wishes for a continuation of the activity in botanical investigation 
and popularization which has won the Garden so eminent a posi- 
tion in the scientific world.” 
“Is it possible that the Botanic Garden is only twenty-five, and 
can so much beauty have been realized in so short a time?” 
“The development of this institution and the achievements of 
the staff during this first quarter of a century are a matter of great 
congratulation and to me of great personal interest. The whole 
institution appears to me to be soundly based, well planned, has 
been so fortunate as to acquire a fine staff, and has a devoted and 
enthusiastic constituency. It has truly exceeded any expectations 
that might have been formed at the time of its foundation.” 
Tue Pustic’s OBLIGATION TO PATRONS 
This rapid survey of what the Brooklyn Botanic Garden is con- 
tributing should not close without a word of appreciation to those 
who conceived the idea of a Botanic Garden in Brooklyn and to 
all those whose moral and financial support have made its work 
possible. In his book, “ The American Contribution to Civiliza- 
tion,” President Eliot, of Harvard, wrote as follows: 
“People may be relied on to make themselves comfortable or 
wealthy, 1f they can; but they need every possible aid in making 
themselves good, or learned. The self-interest of no man and no 
association of men, would lead to the establishment of a univer- 
sity. . . . Institutions of high education never have been self-sup- 
porting in any country; and there is no reason whatever to sup- 
pose that they ever can be. If they were made self-supporting 
they would be inaccessible to the poor, and be maintained exclu- 
sively for the rich.” 
It was their unselfish, civic interest in the cultural welfare of 
