136 SIR WILLIAM HOOKER 



this date, and the event which it carried with it, as a nodal point 

 in the history of botany not only in this country, but also in the 

 world at large. 



The urgent necessity for such an official centre as Kew 

 now is was patent in the interests of the British Empire. The 

 need of it had already been clearly before the minds of the 

 Parliamentary Commission, appointed a few years before, with 

 Dr Lindley as chairman, to report upon the question of the 

 retaining of the Botanic Gardens at Kew. The report contained 

 the following passage which, while it formulates an ideal then 

 to be aimed at, summarises in great measure the activities of 

 the present establishment at Kew. "The wealthiest and most 

 civilised country in Europe offers the only European example 

 of the want of one of the first proofs of wealth and civilisation. 

 There are many gardens in the British colonies and depend- 

 encies, as Calcutta, Bombay, Saharunpore, the Mauritius, Sydney, 

 and Trinidad, costing many thousands a year: their utility is 

 much diminished by the want of some system under which they 

 can be regulated and controlled. There is no unity of purpose 

 among them; their objects are unsettled, and their powers wasted 

 from not receiving a proper direction: they afford no aid to each 

 other, and it is to be feared, but little to the countries where they 

 are established : and yet they are capable of conferring very 

 important benefits on commerce, and of conducing essentially to 

 colonial prosperity. A National Botanic Garden would be the 

 centre around which all these lesser establishments should be 

 arranged : they should all be placed under the control of the 

 chief of that garden, acting with him, and through him with 

 each other, recording constantly their proceedings, explaining 

 their wants, receiving supplies, and aiding the mother country in 

 everything useful in the vegetable kingdom : medicine, commerce, 

 agriculture, horticulture, and many branches of manufacture 

 would derive considerable advantage from the establishment of 

 such a system.... From a garden of this kind Government could 

 always obtain authentic and official information upon points 

 connected with the establishment of new Colonies : it would 

 afford the plants required on these occasions, without its being 

 necessary, as now, to apply to the officers of private establish- 



