BOTANICAL GARDENS 947 



had discovered it. If we had only applied science, it would soon become 

 sterile. It is pure or fundamental science that keeps applied science alive, 

 that makes progress possible. For example if Faraday had not worked in 

 pure science, Edison would have had no basis for his wonderful inventions. 

 And so it is throughout the whole range of the practical things we are using 

 today. To neglect pure science and support only applied science would be 

 like wanting children and eliminating parents. When I hear those who are 

 regarded as practical men lauding our practical achievements, which cer- 

 tainly deserve praise, I think of them as those who would praise the practi- 

 cal electric light and forget the impractical, because unseen, power house. 

 Scientific research is the power house that generates all the energy we 

 apply in developing what may be called the machinery of our civilization." 



Dr. Coulter at this point in his address gave a number of examples 

 illustrating the value of scientific research in relation to the production of 

 food through the discovery of the laws of heredity which placed agriculture 

 upon a scientific basis, through the development of drought-resisting plants, 

 control of the diseases of plants, etc., concluding with the following para- 

 graph: 



"Years ago an Austrian monk, working in his monastery garden, dis- 

 covered some interesting behavior in the plants he was breeding. He 

 recorded his facts and his conclusions in an obscure journal, and no one 

 paid any attention to it. What could be expected from a monk pottering 

 in his garden? Years afterward, the contribution was discovered, and 

 today it is the basis of most of our work in the study of heredity, and this 

 in turn has made our agriculture scientific. No one knows what may turn 

 up in a garden like this one of yours. It is a gold mine of opportunity. See 

 to it that it is cultivated. " 



Dr. C. Stuart Gager, director of the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, in a 

 very interesting and informing article entitled "The Educational Work 

 of Botanical Gardens" (Contribution No. I, Brooklyn Botanical Garden, 

 reprinted from Journal of the New York Botanical Garden, 12 173-85, Ap. 191 1), 

 summarizes the educational work of botanical gardens as follows: 



"The educational work of botanical gardens falls naturally under six 

 heads: (i) Information by means of well-labeled specimens; (2) Popular 

 lectures; (3) Research work; (4) Periodicals and publications; (5) Courses 

 of lectures and instruction to organized classes; (6) Docentry. These various 

 phases of botanical education developed in connection with gardens approx- 

 imately in the order named. 



I. Information by means of well-labeled specimens. A museum has 

 recently been described as a collection of attractive labels illustrated by 

 specimens. The earliest educational work of botanic gardens was confined 

 almost entirely to what might be accomplished by such means. In other 

 words, the garden was a place where anyone sufficiently interested could go 

 and 'educate' himself, i.e., secure without the aid of a teacher a certain 



