SCHOOL NUMBER 
BROOKLYN BOTANIC GARDEN 
LEAFLETS 
THE BROOKLYN INSTITUTE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES 
Series III Brooklyn, N. Y., April 7, 1915. Number 1 
LIST OF TALKS FOR ELEMENTARY 
SCHOOL CLASSES 
The following list of talks offered to elementary school classes 
was sent recently to the public and private schools of Brooklyn. 
As will be seen, the subjects chosen are based on the syllabus in 
nature study and geography used at present in the public schools. 
The correlation we have made with these subjects is a rather loose 
one, purposely so planned in orde.r that through its very elasticity 
any grade might use any subject with miTOtfteations. It has been 
stated over and over that it is almost impossible to teach Nature 
Study in city schools because of lack of opportunity for the study 
of living plants and other material. 
The city syllabus calls for the study of wild flowers, and no wild 
flowers are to be had; common trees are to become familiar friends 
of the children, and the trees selected are often not in the immediate 
neighborhood of the school; rice, the food of half the population 
of the world, must be studied only from books. The existence of 
a Botanic Garden in Brooklyn now makes it possible, at least once 
a term, for each school to send its classes to the Garden where 
they may see growing the various economic and other plants of 
this and foreign countries. 
A member of one of the High School classes visiting the Gar- 
den to study economic plants said, “This seeing living things is 
a whole lot better than reading about them in books.’’ So it is. 
