OO 
The following outside responsibilities have been carried on by 
members of the Department— 
Miss Hammond—Vice President and presiding officer of the 
New York Chapter, American Nature Study Society. 
Miss Miner—President of the Garden Education Department, 
National [Education Association, and present Editor for the 
~ 
organization, 
The Curator—Secretary of the National Plant, Flower & Fruit 
Guild; member, Board of Directors, American Nature 
Study Society; representative of the Brooklyn Botanic 
Garden at Board of Education meetings for closer contact 
between schools and outside institutions. 
Respectfully submitted, 
ELLEN Eppy SHAW, 
Curator of Elementary Instruction. 
REPORT OF THE CURATOR OF PLANTS FOR 1942 
To THE DIRECTOR: 
Herewith [ present my report of activities during 1942. 
HERBACEOUS PLANTS 
During midwinter, time was given as usual to the study and 
arrangement of herbarium specimens of our cultivated plants, of 
which we now have a good collection. We have completed brief 
keys to many of our herbaceous plants. These have a practical 
use for identifications, especially in spring, because so many plants 
are then in flower about the same time. We must know what 
we have in order to plan to discard some and try to obtain addi- 
tional kinds. We can grow only a small part of the herbaceous 
plants of the world because of limited space and climatic condi- 
tions. For example, Dianthus is supposed to include about 250 
species, and Potentilla about 200 species. We can select only a 
few desirable ones; to attempt to grow all would require an alto- 
gether disproportionate amount of time and space. Our constant 
aim, of course, is steadily to improve the quality of our collections. 
