7a 
ADDRESS OF APPRECIATION 
3Y 
B 
Mr. Joun C. WISTER 
It is quite fitting that the Spring Inspection, which is the most 
important of the meetings during the year, should be devoted in 
part to a tribute to Dr. Gager and to his work, not only in building 
up the Brooklyn Botanic Garden but in botany and horticulture 
in general. 
Naturally I feel greatly honored to have been asked to speak 
here today. I first knew Dr. Gager about 1920 and was quickly 
impressed by the extraordinary breadth of his interests and his 
— 
deep knowledge of all subjects relating to botany and the growing 
of plants. I may add something else that will not surprise any of 
you because I am sure it has happened to you too:—I grew very 
fond of him and came to value him not merely as a learned man but 
as a true friend. In the past twenty-four years [ have come many 
times to this garden on many different errands, but hardly ever 
came without seeing him and without getting from him both help 
and inspiration. 
Many of you know that in the late 90’s and early 1900's there 
en. In time this de- 
fa 
arose in Brooklyn a desire for a botanic garc 
sire grew into a definite movement which reached fruition in 1910, 
largely through the active support of Mr. Alfred T. White. 
The site chosen for the garden was a thirty-nine acre tract of 
mostly undeveloped land on part of which the Park Department 
burned trash and rubbish. Eleven additional acres were acquired 
later. : 
Dr. Gager had been, among other things, Professor of Botany 
at the University of Missouri, and Director of the Laboratories of 
the New York Botanical Garden, where he had instituted one of 
the earliest investigations of the effect of radium on plants. In 
both positions he had made a good impression. Téven at an early 
age his great scientific knowledge made it possible for him to speak 
to scholars. He had with that the ability to make public addresses 
which interested his audiences, which frequently, was not the case 
with many botanists. The unfortunate inability of many scientific 
