29 
ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 
The work of the Department of Elementary I¢ducation, includ- 
ing teachers in the Public Schools and_ chilc 
anny 
ren from approx- 
imately 10 to 18 years of age, has continued along much the same 
lines as heretofore. This work grows in importance and in public 
appreciation, and has become known over a wide geographic range. 
The sustained interest and attendance of boys and girls over pe- 
riods of from three to seven years is one of the most encouraging 
features of the work and greatly enhances its educational value. 
More than 1,000,000 penny packets of vegetable and flower 
seeds were supplied in 1935 to school children for planting in 
school and home gardens. The number of plants raised in classes, 
as a by-product of learning how to raise plants, has exceeded 
30,000. Such figures of quantitative results should not divert 
attention from the much more important educational results of 
the courses of instruction—results which, of course, cannot be 
expressed in figures. 
THe LIBRARY 
“Tt is awful to think how much there is to read.” So wrote 
Charles Darwin to Sir Joseph Hooker, the Director of Kew, in 
1845. It is difficult to imagine what adjective would have ex- 
pressed Darwin’s state of mind were he to have written in 1935, 
In building up the library of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden from 
75 books at the end of 1911 to 18,770 books and 15,378 bound 
pamphlets at the end of 1935, it has been our aim to acquire the 
important incunabula, herbals, and botanical classics, complete files 
of the most important periodicals, and the important works of 
reference. Special endeavor has been made to strengthen the l1- 
brary along the lines of the educational and research work in 
progress at the Garden, and the development of the plantations. 
The Library is woefully underfinanced. Only 113 volumes 
were added by purchase in 1935—about half as many as in 1934. 
Books received by gift, exchange, and binding bring the total to 

245 volumes. The average number of volumes added annually 
from 1911 to 1934 exceeds 800. The current receipt of nearly 
1,000 periodical publications means 1,000 volumes to be bound each 
