DEVELOPMENT OF KEW 139 



achievements over the whole of his professional career, including 

 the Glasgow period together with his later years at Kew. 



Taking first the living collections, he had already shown at 

 Glasgow, where the opportunities were more limited than at 

 Kew, a singular success in securing additions to the plants under 

 cultivation. This is now reflected more clearly in the lists which 

 were published from time to time than in any actual specimens 

 still living after the vicissitudes of cultivation of 70 years ; 

 though it is not improbable that some of our older specimens 

 date from his period of office. The current floristic serials, many 

 of them produced and even personally illustrated by himself, 

 also form a record of the novelties from time to time secured. 

 This rapid growth of the Glasgow garden has already been noted, 

 and the large number of the plants introduced under his influence. 

 It only required the same methods to be put in practice in the 

 larger sphere of action of the metropolis to ensure a similar, 

 though a far greater result at Kew. Moreover, the official 

 position which he there held as Director, gave an increasing 

 obligation to meet his wishes on the part of foreign and colonial 

 gardens, and other sources of supply. Notable among the 

 many other living collections that resulted was the series of 

 Ferns, already a subject of his detailed study while at Glasgow. 

 In its maintenance and increase he was ably assisted by the 

 Curator, Mr John Smith, himself no small a contributor to the 

 systematic treatment of the Ferns. Hooker's aim was, however, 

 not to forward the interests of any special group of plants, but 

 to make the collections as representative as possible. This is 

 clearly reflected in the various character of the plant-houses 

 successively built at his instigation, and remaining still to testify 

 to the catholicity of his views. 



In the days at Glasgow, Sir William had already made 

 his private museum ancillary to the living collections, in his 

 endeavour to demonstrate the characters of the vegetable world. 

 This line of demonstration he further developed after his removal 

 to Kew, and the results, together with later additions, but with 

 methods little changed, are to be seen in the splendid museums 

 of the Gardens at the present time. The specimens were from 

 the first mainly illustrative of Economic Botany, such as are of 



