of Captain Cook and Sir Joseph Banks round the world, 

 those of Capt. Flinders and Mr. Robert Brown ( JBotanicorum 

 Princeps) and of Mr. Allan Cunningham to Australia, of 

 Bowie and Masson to the Cape of Good Hope and Brazil, 

 enriched the gardens at this period with the vegetable pro- 

 ductions of the Southern Hemisphere, to a degree which has 

 had no parallel, before or since, — add to this, one or more 

 collectors were, for a long period of years, employed in vari- 

 ous other countries abroad, and the produce of their researches 

 was deposited at Kew. 



These vast accessions of plants to the garden occasioned a 

 new and greatly enlarged edition of Mr. Alton's Hortus 

 Kewensis to be published by his son, in five vols. 8vo. (1810) ; 

 " a work," as the author justly remarks, in the Dedication to 

 the King, " rendered necessary to the public, not only by the 

 number of valuable plants continually sent home by your 

 Majesty's collectors abroad ; but also by the influx of curious 

 Exotics, poured into the Royal Botanic Garden of late, by 

 your Majesty's subjects, anxious to aid, by their individual 

 exertions, that munificent patronage which has rendered 

 Botany a favorite pursuit among all classes of your Majesty's 

 people." In the same Dedication Mr. Aiton acknowledges 

 the valuable assistance he (as well as his father) received 

 from the scientific knowledge and learning of Sir Joseph 

 Banks and Mr. Dryander. In this second edition too, the 

 Botanical world is indebted, for an entire revision of the 

 Orchideous and Cruciferous tribes, to the pen of Mr. Brown. 

 At various times, and especially during the life of His Majesty 

 George the Third, other houses, stoves, and pits were erected as 

 occasion required; but it must be confessed that, on the decease 

 of that revered monarch, and of Sir Joseph Banks, whom His 

 Majesty so much delighted to honor, and who died shortly 

 after the King, the Botanic Garden languished and suffered 

 from want of royal and scientific encouragement. During the 

 reigns of George the Fourth and William the Fourth, with 

 the exception of the few plants transmitted by collectors who 

 were occasionally employed, and one hothouse, (the conserv- 

 atory,) being erected by the last-mentioned sovereign, (and it 

 is but justice to say this is the handsomest and most orna- 

 mental,) the Botanic Garden rather retrograded than other- 

 wise ; its funds were diminished ; and matters would have been 

 much worse, but for the truly parental affection cherished 

 towards the establishment on the part of Mr. Aiton and the 

 able exertions of his Assistant and Foreman (now the Curator) 



