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lection of hardy herbaceous plants numbered above 2000 species 
arranged by families in beds, including “one of the largest collec- 
tions of alpine plants in the country—numbering nearly 1000 spe- 
cies—each plant in a separate pot, neatly named and classified in 
their natural orders.” Mr. Niven, the curator, came from Kew, 
and during the summer months he delivered three lectures a week 
in his capacity as Botanical Lecturer in the Hull School of Medi- 
cine. The lectures were given in a lodge just inside the entrance 
gate and opposite the curator’s residence. 
Mr: 1) Sheppard; M.Sc, A.L.S., of Hull, anda personal 
friend of Mr. Peake, Superintendent of the new Garden, has been 
good enough to supply, in manuscript form, his personal recollec- 
tions of the Hull Garden. The following quotations are from 
Mr. Sheppard’s manuscript. 
“One of my earliest recollections, which goes back over half a 
century, was attending a Fete at the Hull Botanic Gardens. .. . 
That was in the declining years of the Botanic Gardens as such, 
when the share holders had to adopt various popular means of in- 
creasing their income. . . . The Botanic Gardens were originally 
on the outskirts of the town, although now well in the center, and 
the street leading to them was named after the great botanist Lin- 
naeus. . . . Later a plot of land outside Hull as it was then, was 
purchased, and known as the Botanic Gardens.” This was the 
new Garden, 1877, referred to in the quotation that follows from 
the Gardeners’ Chronicle. Nothing now remains of this Garden 
except the name “ Botanic Gardens” for the station of the Hull 
and Withernsea Railway, the first from the center of the City. 
The Garden gradually lost its scientific character and became little 
more than an amusement park. Ultimately the site was sold and 
on it was built a large boys school, Hymer’s College. All of the 
above information, including Mr. Sheppard’s manuscript, was ob- 
tained through the good offices of Prof. R. D’O. Good, of the 
Department of Botany, University College, Hull. 
The Gardeners’ Chronicle for May 12, 1877 (p. 596) states as 
follows: 
“The town of Hull was one of the first to establish a public 
garden for the instruction and recreation of its inhabitants, and 
the Hull Botanic Garden has long enjoyed a well earned reputa- 
