ta 
recognition of scientific workers and their contributions on the 
basis of national and racial origins; but with this, almost if not 
quite, unique exception, it has been the universal practice of na- 
tional governments to promote chiefly the advancement and dis- 
semination of “that science which does not fence itself off from 
the people . . . but is ready to serve the people.” This has been 
specially true of the modern democracies, as witness the support 
of Pasteur’s work by Government in France; the governmental 
support of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew and Edinburgh, the 
Rothamstead Agricultural [experiment Station, and the National 
Astronomical Observatory at Greenwich by England; the National 
3ureau of Standards, the Department of Agriculture, the Geo- 
ogical and Geodetic Survey, the Health Service, the Bureau of 
Iorestry, and other official scientific departments and bureaus of 
the United States Government and the Governments of the various 
— 
states of the Union, and other instances too numerous to mention. 
It was in harmony with this normal point of view of science that 
the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, in the first year of its existence, 
stated its aim as “for the advancement of botany and the service 
of the city,’ and parallel with a plan of scientific research de- 
veloped a program of public education, and organized its planta- 
tions with that aim chiefly in view. It is specially pertinent for a 
botanic garden to recall that one of the first opportunities in 
America for teachers to study science was given by a botanist 
when Asa Gray, professor of botany in Harvard University, an- 
nounced sixty-eight years ago (in 1871) that teachers who could 
not take his courses during term time would be given an oppor- 
tunity to attend during the summer vacation. This was not only 
the beginning of the “summer session,” now common in most of 
our universities; it was a pioneer step in adult education. 
Exlubits and Formal Instruction 
The feature that most distinguishes museums and botanic gar- 
dens from other types of educational institutions is the mainte- 
nance of labeled collections of objects for observation and study. 
3ut it is the common tendency for visitors to gain from the ex- 
hibits only individual notions, or percepts, and to be satisfied with 
percepts, rather than to gain general notions, or concepts, or 
