DEVELOPMENT OF KEW 137 



ments for advice and help.... Such a garden would be the great 

 source of new and valuable plants to be introduced and dis- 

 persed through this country, and a powerful means of increasing 

 the pleasures of those who already possess gardens : while, what 

 is far more important, it would undoubtedly become an efficient 

 instrument in refining the taste, increasing the knowledge, and 

 augmenting the rational pleasures of that important class of 

 society, to provide for whose instruction is so great and wise an 

 object of the present administration." 



Such were the surrounding conditions, and such the aims of 

 Sir William Hooker when he took up the duties of Director of 

 the Royal Gardens. He was, however, given no specific instruc- 

 tions on entering office. He therefore determined to follow the 

 suggestions of Dr Lindley's Report, and in the carrying of them 

 out he had powerful support, both official and other. The original 

 area of the Garden, apart from the Pleasure Grounds and the Deer 

 Park, was small; when first taken over from the Lord Steward's 

 Department by the Commissioners of Woods and Forests, it 

 extended only to about 18 acres, and the Chief Commissioner, 

 Lord Duncannon, was strongly opposed to their enlargement, or 

 to further expenditure upon them. It required methods of 

 diplomacy, as well as determination and energy, not always to 

 be found among scientific men, to carry into effect the scheme 

 laid down in the Report, and success came only slowly. In 

 1842 additional ground was taken in from the Pleasure Grounds, 

 so as to afford an entrance from Kew Green, now the principal 

 gate of the Garden. In 1843 there were added 48 acres of 

 Arboretum, including the site of the Great Palm House. This 

 was commenced in 1844, and was followed in 1846 by the Orchid 

 House. In 1848 the old storehouse for fruit (close to the fruit 

 garden of the old Palace, now the site of the Herbaceous 

 Ground), was converted into a Museum of Economic Botany, 

 the first of its kind to be established. It was in part furnished 

 by the collections which Sir William had brought with him from 

 Glasgow. It now stands as Museum No. II. In 1850 the 

 Water-Lily House was built, and in 1855 the long house for 

 Succulents. Meanwhile, in 1853, an official house had been 

 found for the Director, while another Crown house adjoining 



