133 
RESEARCH 
According to Dr. Gager, ‘““The outstanding perennial need of 
botanic gardens . . . is more knowledge. And the necessary new 
knowledge is, of course, to be obtained only by research.” 
“The really indispensable condition for progress is the spirit 
of inquiry,’ wrote Dr. Gager in one of his annual reports, and it 
is appropriate that we pause and evaluate this privilege in terms 
of past accomplishment at the Botanic Garden, in order to ap- 
preciate its worth, and foster its continuance wherever and when- 
ever possible. “To the end of time, as we firmly believe, truth 
must be ascertained by the well-tested method of observation, in- 
ference and deductive verification,” he stated before a group of 
scientists in 1917, and toward an appreciation of this belief by 
J 
laymen he worked unceasingly during the entire period of his 
Directorship. He frequently requested funds to support research, 
for he felt that botanic gardens should not become mere “depos- 
. to a nation, 
” “ec 
oe 
itories and purveyors” of botanical knowledge ; 
research is a moral obligation,’ he once wrote, and added: “It is 
the very life blood of... botanic gardens if they are to be more 
than mere show places and retailers of second-hand information.” 
He was fully aware, as most people are not, of the debt which all 
of us owe to scientific research, and he felt that it was the obligation 
of a botanic garden, which constantly used and benefited from 
the researches of others, to make its own original contributions to 

botanical knowledge. Research was one of the primary objects 
for which the Botanic Garden was founded and is one of its 
yotanic garden.” 
Dr. Gager favored the continuance of research in pure science, 
— 
“largest opportunities and obligations as a 
stating: “The surest way to make botany useful is to follow out 
ye N10 
—y 
a program of research in pure science;... That there can 
applied science unless there is first something to apply, is a truism.” 
He once made the statement that “It would, no doubt, be mis- 
leading to say that the important thing about research is not the 
results, but the continuation of it; and yet there is an element of 
truth in that assertion.” The emphasis has not been laid on the 
immediate results, but on a continuation of the spirit of inquiry 
Although, according to him, ‘There is no place for the useless, 
