crowded together without plan or arrangement, all heated by 

 separate fires, producing a quantity of soot, which causes 

 much inconvenience ; they contain a great variety of rare and 

 valuable Tropical plants, in good preservation. Besides these 

 houses, a fine Orangery stands in the Pleasure Grounds, 

 filled with Orange trees and other shrubs, of great size and 

 value, and a new architectural greenhouse (that erected by 

 William the Fourth, before mentioned). The report goes on 

 to state that " the cultivation, on the whole, is creditable to 

 those individuals who have had charge of the garden, consid- 

 ering the crowded state of the houses, and the inadequate 

 funds allowed for its support. These causes, and the very 

 insufficient extent of ground allotted to the garden as a 

 National Institution for the encouragement and extension of 

 Botanical Science, prevent its fulfilling the objects for which 

 it was designed ; neither does it seem to be useful as a private 

 Royal Garden, being only resorted to for supplies of flowers 

 and plants, on occasion of great entertainments at the royal 

 palace. 



" Of late years, the means of maintaining this garden 

 appear to have been considerably reduced ; one of the two 

 collectors, who had been sent abroad in 1814 to collect seeds 

 and plants and to communicate with similar institutions in 

 other countries, having been recalled in 1823, and the other 

 in 1830." 



It resulted from this investigation that the whole of the 

 Gardens, Pleasure Grounds, and Park was transferred to the 

 department of Her Majesty's Commissioners of Woods and 

 Forests. Mr. Aiton, on the eve of the fiftieth anniversary of 

 his Directorship, retired from the charge of the Botanic Gar- 

 dens, and the writer of the present notice received instructions 

 from the Honorable Board of Commissioners to enter upon 



9. " A Botany- Bay house, 110 feet long, crowded with magnificent 

 specimens, chiefly of New Holland plants." 



10. " An old" Stove, reported to be the first house erected in the garden, 

 110 feet long, in three divisions, one occupied by noble succulents and other 

 plants; the second containing a stately Zamia pungens, Palms, fyc; and 

 the third a miscellaneous set of greenhouse plants, with a few forced flowers 

 for nosegays." 



11. "In addition to these, there are, in the Pleasure Ground, a fine old 

 Orangery, above alluded to, 130 feet long, filled with Orange trees Arau- 

 carias, New Holland and other plants, of great size : and 



12. In another part of the Pleasure Ground, adjoining the Arboretum, 

 there has been recently erected an architectural greenhouse, 82 feet long, 

 42 feet wide, and 28 feet high." 



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