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Nomenclature was studied; color classifications were worked out; 
soil, fertilizer and moisture requirements were studied in detail. 
Dr. Reed even made a trip to Japan to get first hand knowledge. 
Miss Maud H. Purdy and Miss Louise B. Mansfield made water 
color drawings which are the atthoritative record of the recognized 
varieties. 
Dr. Gager was willing to cooperate with a small new society 
which had not proved its worth. He made it possible for that 
society to publish the first authoritative information about. this 
beautiful and often difficult group of Irises. I think in contrast of 
a prominent engineer whom I have known over thirty years. His 
work for many civic projects both in his own state and in the nation 
at large have brought him public respect. My respect for him, 
however, was almost entirely destroyed, because I learned that 
some years ago when he was asked to help in a worthy public 
work, he declined because the organization involved was new and 
had not vet proved its ability. He did not know whether it could 
succeed. He said that he personally could not afford to be asso- 
ciated with any failure. This narrow and selfish point of view, 
is one shared by many otherwise fine people. It certainly was not 
the point of view of Dr. Gager. He never took time to think 
whether a new organization would succeed or fail, or whether 
failure in something with which he codperated would reflect on 
him personally. All he thought of was to help. What he did for 
the American Iris Society he did with many other similar horti- 
cultural societies. I mention it in detail because it was my first 
experience with him and with the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. 
Dr. Gager was a Director of the Horticultural Society of New 
York from 1928 to 1943, and a Vice-President from 1937 to 1943. 
Mis wise, kindly, guiding hand could be seen in much of the work 
of that society. In its great flower shows, the Brooklyn Botanic 
Garden staged some of the most effective educational exhibits. 
Perhaps the finest of these was the demonstration of the propaga- 
tion of plants by various methods. There were shown the seeds, 
the resulting young seedlings a few days and then a few weeks old, 
then finally a few months or a few years old. There were cuttings, 
rooted cuttings, young plants after they had been grown some 
months or years. There were cions, grafts and grafted plants, 
