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(2) Popular Education, Dr. Gager was preéminently an edu- 
cator. His greatest success was in the dissemination of botanical 
knowledge. In 1912 Dr. E. W. Olive poke Curator of Pub 
Instruction. In 1913 Miss Ellen Eddy Shaw was appointed In- 
structor of Elementary Education. In 1916 she was appointed 
Curator and at that time this phase of education was definitely 
separated from public instruction. Miss Shaw has done much to 
=_— 
1c 
interest the tens of thousands of children who for nearly thirty 
years have been coming here for various kinds of instruction. As 
far as | have any record this was the first time that a botanic garden 
gave elementary instruction to children. In addition to orc 
— 
inary 
teaching there was practice in planting seeds and in developing 
small garden plots, each one of which belonged to a particular 
child for the year. This does not seem particularly unusual today 
because it has become a popular thing all over this great land, but 
Dr. Gager was one of the first, if not the first, to recognize th 
value of such instruction. 
(3) The Promotion of Research. The work of a Director of 
a great garden leaves little time for extensive research work, 
= 
Therefore it is not surprising that Dr. Gager himself did not con- 
tribute greatly to the advance of science along some particular line 
alter he became Director. He wrote a good deal it is true, and 
many of his writings are of great value. One report that I re- 
member particularly dealt with the botanic gardens of the world, 
giving the inf 
ormation as to where each one was, when it was 
founded, how many acres it covered, who the directors had been 
and were, and what work it primarily stressed. The thing that 
seems to me important is that Dr. Gager realized the importance 
of research, and that he facilitated the researches of others. I 
remember a famous college president who was interested in His- 
tory, Government and Economics who during his term built up 
splendid staffs and courses in these fields, while neglecting the 
Fine Arts and the sciences. It seems to me that Dr. Gager was 
the exact opposite because he did not neglect any of the fields in 
which a botanical garden might function, and he was thoroughly 
sympathetic in building up departments which did not lie within 
the range of his own particular interests. It is also characteristic 

of him that he did not in any way “drive” his curators but rather 
