69 



If we consider that the Brooklyn Botanic Garden is located in 

 a city of more than seven million inhabitants and thai (he Garden's 

 cultural influence was extended in 1940 to more than two million, 

 most of whom came to the Garden as visitors; and if we consider 

 further the extensive services which the Garden renders annually 

 to the schools of the city, to innumerable other organizations both 

 public and private, to children and adults, and the direct benefits 

 to the members themselves, an enrolled living membership, in all 

 classes, of not quite 1,100 is certainly less than one might reason- 

 ably expect. We believe that this small enrollment is not an ex- 

 pression of the ability of the community to respond, but of a 

 failure to look upon membership from the point of view indicated 

 in the preceding paragraphs — not as a luxury but, in a democracy, 

 as a social obligation for those who can afford it. 



The total number of annual members as of the date of the last 

 report was 452; as of the date of this report 467 — a gain of only 

 15. Information concerning membership and its privileges may 

 be found on pages iii-iv preceding this report. 



The annual distribution of plants to members was made on 

 Wednesday, May 29, when 6,524 plants of Chrysanthemums and 

 miscellaneous annuals were distributed — 17 plants to each of 242 

 members who called for them. 



Personnel 



Mrs. Mary Theodosia Currier Healy, of Gold Spring, N. Y., a 

 member of the Board of Trustees and of the Woman's Auxiliary, 

 died in St. Petersburg, Florida, on June 23, 1940. She was the 

 widow of Mr. A. Augustus I lealy, a member of the Board of 

 Trustees, its president for twenty-live years (1905-1920), and ex- 

 officio member of the Botanic Garden Governing Committee. 



Mr. William G. Creamer, of Brooklyn, became a trustee of the 

 Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences and a member of the 

 Botanic Garden Governing Committee on April 11, 1940. 



Dr. C. Stuart Gager, director, received, on May 20, a letter from 

 the secretary of the Royal New Zealand Institute of Horticulture 

 notifying him of his election as an Honorary member of the in- 

 stitute. 



