104 



Adult Courses 



The year 1940 was a banner year for adult education at the 

 Brooklyn Botanic Garden, if one uses the number of total regis- 

 trants as a gauge. This will readily he seen by a glance at the 



figures for the last lew years. 



Year 

 1932 

 1933 

 1934 



1935 

 1936 

 1937 

 1938 

 1939 

 1940 



Tola! Adult Registration 



908 

 823 

 927 

 907 

 973 

 802 

 761 

 725 

 1,359 



Such a phenomenal increase must o\ course have its cause, or 

 causes. The policy of the Garden to offer courses to city institu- 

 tions as part of its " service to the City " is one ot these causes. 

 When the Garden commenced, back in 1913, its educational pro- 

 gram of instructional classes offered to the public, certain courses 

 were modelled especially for the needs of teachers in the Xew York 

 City School System. The response has always been gratifying. 

 In the fall of 1 ( )40. a special nature study course, offered by Miss 

 Shaw and the Department of Elementary Instruction, brought 350 

 teachers to the Garden. A new combination course, planned espe- 

 cially for teachers in the schools and entitled ' Nature Science 

 Garden Course." was offered by Miss Shaw and Mr. Marvin X. 

 Brooks, Director of Xature Education, Board of Education, X. ^ . 

 C. Forty people enrolled for this course. 



For the past fourteen years we have been offering a course to 

 nurses-in-training in the Brooklyn Hospitals — a course consisting 

 mainly of a study of medicinal plants as they are growing on the 

 grounds and in the conservatories of the Garden, supplemented by 

 a laboratory study of plant tissues and physiology, with the help 

 of the compound microscope. This course started with a few 

 pupils in 1 ( )27. During the years it has been gradually increasing 

 in favor with the hospital authorities. In 1940 live hospitals sent 

 their students — 331 in all. These hospitals were: Kings County, 

 Prospect Heights, St. Johns, [ewish, and Cumberland. 



