BROOKLYN BOTANIC GARDEN 
LEAFLETS 
THE BROOKLYN INSTITUTE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES 
Series V Brooklyn, N. Y., April 18, 1917. No. 3 
GUIDE TO THE LABORATORY BUILDING 
The aims of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden are the advance- 
ment and diffusion of a knowledge and love of plants. Consonant 
with these aims, the Laboratory Building was planned especially 
to accommodate two lines of activity — namely, botanical research 
and public education in botany and closely related subjects. 
The building is so arranged that the research work is largely 
confined to the northern half, the public instruction to the 
southern half. The library, which ministers to both, is located 
in the center of the building. 
The main entrance, from the Garden on the west, leads into 
the spacious central rotunda. Here, as throughout the building, 
the architectural treatment is of the Italian renaissance, the 
motive being similar to that not uncommonly found in churches 
in Lombard)'— a Greek cross with a cupola at the junction of the 
arms. The central rotunda is recalled by two smaller rotundas 
at the north and south ends of the building. 
The frieze is dignified with the following quotations, germane 
to the spirit of modern science: 
1. The essence of science is the endeavor to ascertain by the 
best method that which is most worth knowing. (Anon.) 
2. The interrogation point is the key to all scie?ices. (From 
the great French botanist, A. P. De Candolle) 
3. fn natural science the principles of truth must be confirmed 
by observation. (Linnaeus) 
4. O nine vivum e vivo . This classic, but anonymous, Latin 
phrase, “All life from life,’’ expresses one of the 
broadest and most fundamental generalizations ever 
arrived at by the application of the scientific method, 
as concisely expressed in the first three quotations. 
Turning to the left, down the north corridor, one passes in 
order the public office, offices of the director, the curator of 
plants, the curator of public instruction, and a large room open- 
ing to the left (west) from the north rotunda. This last room is 
planned for the installation of small, temporary exhibits and 
teaching collections’-, and will also be convenient "in connection 
with conferences and occasional social functions. The walls are 
of burlap, underlaid with soft wood, instead of plaster, so that 
