58 
The department of public instruction has been particularly for- 
tunate in having had added to the staff during the past fall Miss 
Ellen Eddy Shaw, who has had large experience with the organ- 
izing of the school garden and nature study movements in the 
east. To her experience as a writer on garden topics and nature 
study, and to that gained by some years of enthusiastic and sym- 
pathetic teaching of these subjects, Miss Shaw adds the prestige 
gained from her official connection with the School Garden Asso- 
ciation of America, the New York City Chapter of the National 
Nature Study Association, and the National Plant, Flower, and 
Fruit Guild. 
Since September, when Miss Shaw assumed her duties at the 
Garden, the work of active cooperation with local schools has 
made most promising progress. Moving into our unfinished labo- 
ratory building in late September, we were enabled almost imme- 
diately to start this educational work in a modest way. The first 
work began in October, when Miss Shaw, in response to a request 
from the Girls’ High School, started a course on the planting of 
bulbs, with two classes from that school. In November another 
class from the same school, under the supervision of Miss Shaw, 
began to use the greenhouse and laboratory facilities at the Gar- 
den to study methods of plant propagation. This work will con- 
tinue until February, 1914. Still another class, taught by their 
teacher, Miss Goodrich, came to the Garden at regular intervals 
for lessons on the propagation of plants by seeds and cuttings. 
At irregular intervals, the teachers of the Girls’ High School and 
other schools have taken field trips to the Garden for the purpose 
of studying methods of pollination, seed dispersal, and other 
topics. 
Classes were also organized by Miss Shaw during the fall for 
children from neighboring elementary schools: one for small boys 
and girls on Tuesday afternoons, two for older girls on Saturday 
mornings and afternoons, and another for boys on Saturday 
mornings. 
A course of five lectures on Indoor Plant Culture, primarily for 
adults, was inaugurated by Miss Shaw on October 22. Forty-six 
persons registered in this course. 
Also during the fall there was worked out a prospectus of 
courses to be offered by the department of public instruction and 
