In 1783, Mr. Haverfleld having been advanced to a higher 

 office, was succeeded by Mr. Aiton in the lucrative post of 

 superintending the pleasure-grounds and kitchen -gardens at 

 Kew, conjointly with which he was allowed to retain his 

 former charge. 



It was about the year 1789, that His Majesty George, the 

 Third purchased Kew House, which was soon afterwards 

 pulled down, and the furniture removed to an old mansion, 

 known by the name of Kew Palace, once the property of Sir 

 Hugh Portman, who is mentioned as "the rich gentleman 

 who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth at Kew." This small 

 but picturesque old brick dwelling, which appears to be of 

 the date of King James or Charles I., was bought in 1781 for 

 Queen Charlotte, and was long the favorite suburban resi- 

 dence of the Royal Family. Her Majesty took great interest 

 in the increase of the collection of plants ; and the late Sir 

 James E. Smith, President of the Linneean Society, has borne 

 testimony to the love of Botany on the part of Queen Char- 

 lotte, when he says, " the name Strelitzia * of Aiton, stands 

 on the sure basis of Botanical knowledge and zeal ; and that 

 few persons have ever loved the study of nature more, or 

 cultivated it so deeply as Her Majesty." Under such Royal 

 auspices, and with the powerful patronage of Sir Joseph Banks, 

 it was only to be expected that the garden of Kew should 

 soon become celebrated all over the world. So early as 1760, 

 the great stove was built by Sir William Chambers, which 

 still exists, and must have been a remarkable structure for 

 that time of day, being 114 feet long; the centre, occupied 

 by the bark stove, 60 feet long, 20 feet wide, and 20 feet high, 



* So called by Sir Joseph Banks and Mr. Aiton, in compliment to Her 

 Majesty, the Consort of George III., as Princess of the House of Mecklen- 

 berg Strelitz. It is a plant worthy to bear so great a name ; and noble 

 specimens are usually to be seen in flower, in one or other of the stoves, 

 during the winter months : especially that species on which the Genus was 

 founded, Strelitzia Regince, figured at Tab. 119 of the Old Series of this 

 work, and which has been justly described as one of the most brilliantly 

 colored flowers in nature. The Strelitzia augusta, a far more stately 

 plant of the Genus, and with larger, but very differently colored petals, has 

 recently flowered in the conservatory of Kew, and will soon find a place 

 in these volumes. — By the recent marriage of H. R. H. the Princess 

 Augusta of Cambridge with the Hereditary Grand Duke of Mecklenberg 

 Strelitz, this august name is still preserved in the family ; and the amiable 

 Princess who bears it, has, we have ample opportunities of knowing, 

 evinced a no less lively interest in the present improvements carrying 

 on at Kew, than her Royal ancestor did in those to which we are now 

 alluding. 



