June 29, 1917] 



SCIENCE 



651 



and advanced ; it is the greatest educational 

 need of to-day. 



Never more than now was our educa- 

 tional atmosphere so surcharged with a 

 clamor for "efSciency," which, in many 

 minds, is synonymous with the idea that 

 the chief end of education is to enable one 

 to get a living. But the scientific habit of 

 mind, briefly outlined above, equips one, 

 not only to get a living, but to live. To be- 

 little the importance of equipping our 

 youth to succeed in some vocation would be 

 folly ; it is greater folly not to recognize the 

 importance of equipping them to spend 

 their hours of recreation in something more 

 wholesome and beneficial than movies and 

 cheap vaudeville. 



To educate one to think straight and to 

 keep his thoughts in the realm of the use- 

 ful and beautiful is of more fundamental 

 importance, is more "practical," if you 

 please, than any other end to be sought by 

 education. The knowledge to be obtained 

 by nature study and the study of botany is 

 of large importance, but the by-products of 

 these studies, as here indicated, are the 

 larger values. The work of public instruc- 

 tion as organized at the Brooklyn Botanic 

 Garden affords an additional opportunity 

 for our citizens to obtain such advantages 

 — ^knowledge in which they are interested 

 so presented as to bring pleasure, to build 

 character, and, in many cases, to serve as 

 the foundation of a successful life work. 

 This is preparedness of the most thorough- 

 going sort, for it not only goes to the root 

 of things, but it serves the nation at all 

 times and under all circumstances, in peace 

 as well as in war. 



Two writers in a late number of Sci- 

 ence,^ discussing the recent debate in the 

 House of Lords between Lord Haldane 

 {pro) and Lord Cromer and Viscount 

 Bryce (con) on the extension of science 

 teaching, and the place of science in educa- 



3 Science, N". S., 44 : 841-844, December 15, 1916. 



tion, call attention to the fact that "sci- 

 ence is finding out and learning how," and 

 is not to be thought of in terms of its re- 

 sults. Any system of education that does 

 not provide ample opportunity for training 

 in finding out and knowing how is funda- 

 mentally faulty. It is the duty of every 

 state, of every city, to see that its educa- 

 tional system makes suitable provision for 

 this kind of discipline. 



Such opportunities, within the realm of 

 botanical science, are afforded at the Brook- 

 lyn Botanic Garden by our own classes, 

 taught by members of the Garden staff, by 

 lectures and nature stories for adults and 

 children, and by opportunities afforded 

 here for teachers of the public and private 

 schools of Brooklyn to bring their pupils 

 for a first-hand study of plants in field, con- 

 servatory and laboratory. When a boy 

 comes to the Botanic Garden regularly 

 every Saturday for a year or more, clear 

 from Staten Island, a round trip journey 

 consuming from three to three and a half 

 hours, one may be sure that what he receives 

 here partakes of the nature of fascination, 

 and possesses unmeasured importance in the 

 making of his character and in his prepara- 

 tion for a useful career. This is only one 

 illustration of many that might be given, 

 of how our work is appealing to an increas- 

 ingly large number of young people. 



As a result of the present international 

 situation there is now a widespread move- 

 ment to bring all available land, especially 

 in cities, under cultivation. This phase of 

 preparedness was inaugurated in Brooklyn 

 by the Botanic Garden some three years 

 ago by the starting of back-yard gardens, 

 and the distribution of penny packets of 

 seed. During the past three years we have 

 distributed over 311,000 penny packets of 

 seeds to the children of Brooklyn, and have 

 inaugurated and inspected from 1,200 to 

 1,400 back-yard gardens. "With the more 

 ample quarters made available by our com- 



