MR. DOWNING'S LETTERS FROM ENGLAND. 



155 



not bear the open air, — and each in the high- 

 est state of cultivation. Giant cactuses from 

 Mexico, fourteen feet high, and estimated to 

 be four hundred years old, and rock gardens 

 under glass, filled with all the ferns and 

 epiphytes of South America, detain and al- 

 most satiate the eye with their wonderful va- 

 riety, and grotesqueness of forms and colours. 



In the open grounds are many noble speci- 

 mens of hardy trees, of great beauty, which I 

 must pass by without even naming them. I 

 saw here the oldest Deodar Cedar and Arau- 

 caria imbricata in England, each about twenty- 

 five feet high, and justifying all the praises 

 that have been lavished upon them ; the for- 

 mer as the most graceful, and the latter the 

 boldest and most picturesque of all ever- 

 greens. The trunk of the largest Araucaria, 

 or Chili pine, here, is of the thickness of a 

 man's leg ; and the tree looks, at a distance, 

 like a gigantic specimen of deep green coral 

 from the depths of the ocean. I was glad to 

 know, from experience, that these two noble 

 evergreens are quite hardy in the northern 

 states. You may judge of the scale on which 

 things are planned in Kew, when I mention 

 that there is a wide avenue of Deodars, newly 

 planted, (extending along one of the vistas 

 from the palm hou.se,) 2,800 feet long. A 

 steam engine occupying the lower part, and 

 a great reservoir the upper part of a lofty 

 tower, supplies, by the aid of concealed pipes, 

 the whole of the botanic garden with water. 



I should not omit the museum — a depart- 

 ment lately commenced, and upon which Sir 

 William Hooker is expending much time. 

 It is in some respects, perhaps, the most 

 useful and valuable feature in the establish- 

 ment. Here are collected, in a dried state, 

 all the curious and valuable vegetable pro- 

 duets — especially those useful in the arts, 

 medicine, and domestic economy — all the raw 

 vegetable materials — the fibre — the manufac- 

 tured products, etc. Here, one may see the 



gutta percha, of the East Indies, in all its 

 states — the maple sugar of America — the 

 lace-bark of Jamaica — the teas of China, and 

 a thousand other like useful vegetable pro- 

 ducts, arranged so as to show the stages of 

 growth and manufacture. Collections of all 

 the fine woods, and specimens of interesting 

 seeds, are also kept in glass cases duly la- 

 belled. 



Now that I have perhaps feebly given you 

 a coup d''a'il of the whole, (omitting number- 

 less leading features for want of time and 

 space,) you must, in order to give the scene 

 its highest interest, imagine the grounds, say 

 at 2 o'clock, filled with a thousand or twelve 

 hundred men, women and children, of all 

 ages — well dressed, orderly and neat, and 

 examining all with interest and delight. 

 You see that they have access, not only to 

 the open grounds, but all the hot-houses, full 

 of rare plants and flower gardens, gay with 

 the most tempting materials for a nosegay. 

 Yet, not a plant is injured — not the least 

 harm is done to the rarest blossom. Sir 

 William assured me that when he first pro- 

 posed to try the experiment of throwing the 

 whole collection open to the public, many 

 persons believed it would prove a fatal one ; 

 that, in short, Anglo-Saxons could not be 

 trusted to run at large in public gardens, full 

 of rarities. It has, however, turned out quite 

 the contrary, as he wisely believed ; and I 

 learned with pleasure (for the fact has a bear- 

 ing at home,) that on days when there had 

 been three thousand persons in the garden at 

 a time, the destruction committed did not 

 amount to the value of four pence ! On the 

 other hand, the benefits are not only felt incli- 

 rectljf, in educating, refining, and elevating 

 the people, but directly in the application of 

 knowledge to the arts of life. I saw, fox 

 example, artists busy in the garden, who had 

 come miles to get an accurate drawing of 

 some plant necessary to their studies ; and 



