400 



JOUENAL OF HOKTIOULTDEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENER. 



[ November 5, 1874. 



old and young, to the infirm and the robust, and to those long 

 pent-up in one of the most populous and murkiest of cities, 

 Kew Gardens offer the means of enjoying within a small space 

 country pleasure with objects of instruction and amusement 

 suited to all tastes. It is a remarkable but pleasing feature 

 of the times in which we live, that the public taste for such 

 places shonldbe on the increase, not merely in Britain but in 



Europe generally. Public gardens have become indispensable 

 to large cities and towns, and when properly kept, as Kew is, 

 are not only delightful mediums for instruction in botanical 

 science, but among the greatest of blessings that can be be- 

 stowed on a people, abounding as they do in objects of interest 

 that generally make lasting impressions on the mind. Happily 

 there are but few who, however little acquainted with botany, 



II 



1.5 



■20 



30 



35 



1, Perilla nankinensis. 



2, PelarRoniura Waltham SeedlinR. 

 8, Centaurea ra^uflina. 



4, CoIeUH VerficbaffeUi. 



5, Pelargomum Mrs. Pollock. 



Fig. 113. — Bed at kew. 



6, 6, Ireaino Lindeni. 



7, Sempt-rvivum orbicnm. 



8, Ctntres of eemicirclefl Echeveria metallicft. 



9, PelarKonium Daybreak. 



10, Lobelia speciosa. 



11, Pyretlirum Qolden Feather. 



12, AltemaDthera maf^nifica. 



IS, MesembryaDthemum cordifolium variegatom. 



14, AltcrnantherB amo^na. 



15, Echeveria secunda glaaoa. 



16, Curbstone. 



are not more or less filled with admiration at the endless 

 variety of forms presented by a considerable assemblage of 

 the members of the vegetable kingdom — their grotesque trunks 

 and tapering stems ; their leaves, so varied in shape and beau- 

 tiful in structure; their flowers, so curious in parts, so diver- 

 sified in colour, and often so exqnisitively fragrant ; also by 

 their wonderful adaptation to the use and gratification of 

 man. 

 It is very pleasant to see how Londoners with their wives 



and families on a fine summer day show their appreciation of 

 the gardens at Kew, dispersing themselves in all directions, 

 some rambling by the riverside under the shade of noble trees, 

 and on secluded paths, stopping here and there at points of view 

 bearing upon objects either natural or artificial. Those walks 

 carry the visitors to all the points of attraction, passing Boses, 

 flowering shrubs of great beauty, rock plants, and herbaceous 

 plants, judiciously grouped. In the hothouses yon can take 

 a glimpse of the vegetation of the tropica ; then there are the 



