16 
Classes and Lectures.—The combined attendance at classes 
and lectures for children and adults at the Garden was 96,672, 
a considerable increase over that of last year. 
Adult Courses and Lectures.— The total registration of adults 
in our courses for 1943 was 969, a somewhat lower figure than 
for several years past, due to several causes, but fundamentally, 
of course, to changes brought about by war conditions. A large 
factor was the drop in registration of student nurses, who have 
been coming by the hundreds in past years. The course for 
nurses, which has now been given for 16 years, has never been a 
part of the curriculum required by the State; and so, with the 
ever increasing demand for trained nurses and, therewith, the 
necessity for cutting down the training time to as short a period 
as possible, everything not absolutely essential is being omitted. 
Nevertheless, St. Johns Hospital sent us their class of 37 young 
women for 5 weeks in the fall (10 weeks is the usual length of the 
course), and the Staten Island, and the Methodist and Norwegian 
hospitals in Brooklyn sent us their students for at least one trip 
through the garden to see the important medicinal plants. But 
when the groups come only once or twice, according to our custom 
they are classified under the heading of visiting classes, and not 
as registered students. 
ourses Given by This Department.— The Conservatory course 
entitled ‘Plants of Tropical America’’ was fairly well attended, 
24 people registering. This course consisted of 6 weekly tours 
through the conservatories Wednesdays at 3 p.m. to see the 
important economic plants. Informal talks were given by Dr. 
Gundersen, Miss Rusk, Miss Ashwell, and myself. In my course 
on Trees and Shrubs, 19 people registered in the spring and 20 in 
the fall. In the new course—‘ Trees in the Botanic Garden ’’— 
which Dr. Gundersen and I offered, 6 people registered. For the 
course A44, “Gardens within a Garden,” 52 people registered. 
This consists of weekly tours through the garden to see various 
floral displays and to get acquainted with the general plan of the 
Garden. <As of last vear, this course was one of those on the 
calendar of the Department of Education of the Brooklyn Insti- 
tute in cooperation with the Botanic Garden. Miss Rusk gave 
4 courses on native ferns and wild flowers, three of them out-of- 
door courses and 1 combining laboratory and field work. She 
