Xiv HORTUS MORTOLENSIS 
his favourite pursuit, but was never unmindful of the many 
claims made on his sympathy and help from all around. 
His efforts on behalf of the poor and suffering, and for 
furthering knowledge, &c., were largely appreciated; and — 
with the same keen interest with which he developed his 
garden he founded the Botanical Institute of the University 
of Genoa. This building, equipped with all modern re- 
quisites, large collections, and a very rich herbarium, was 
inaugurated as the ‘‘ Istituto Hanbury” on September 6th, 
1892, during the festivities in commemoration of Christo- 
pher Columbus, and in the presence of the Italian authorities, 
and of many botanists, who were then attending their 
Congress in the city. 
As the Riviera became more and more a health and 
pleasure resort, the Mortola gardens were thrown open to 
the public on special days (Monday and Friday afternoons). 
At first permission to enter was given by letter, but more 
recently it was decided to admit all who presented them- 
selves at the gate, on payment of a small entrance fee. The 
money thus collected is given to local charities, foremost 
among these being the Ventimiglia Hospital. The number 
of visitors constantly increased, and many of them re- 
member with appreciation how courteously the owner 
himself acted as guide.* 
Many Royal personages have listened with pleasure to 
Sir Thomas’s descriptions of the various plants of interest. 
Foremost among these was Her late Majesty, Queen 
Victoria, in commemoration of whose visit a marble slab 
was placed on the north side of the house, above the > 
entrance to the room where she rested and sketched the 
view from a west window. 
* The late Dr. Maxwell Masters, Editor of the Gardeners’ Chronicle, 
who was Thomas Hanbury’s guest in May, 1874, published, in that journal, 
a full account of his visit, illustrated by two woodcuts. (Gard. Chron., 
1874, ii. 835-69.) The first list of ‘ Plants in Flower in January” had 
appeared in the same paper a few months previously. In 1876, Prof. A. 
Fliickiger published a short but very interesting account of the garden, 
of which an English translation, illustrated by engravings, was printed for 
private circulation in 1885. Early in the eighties Prof. Penzig, of Modena 
(now of Genoa), published several pamphlets on the garden, and, at about 
the same period, the late Dr. Hugh Macmillan devoted a chapter to La 
Mortola in his book The Riviera. The late Rev. C. Casey described many 
of the plants here in his Riviera Nature Notes, which he dedicated to 
Sir Thomas Hanbury. A long and fascinating chapter is devoted to La 
Mortola in Prof. Strasburger’s Streifziige an der Riviera, which appeared 
in 1895, and of which an English translation (Rambles on the Riviera), 
made by O. and B. Casey, was published in 1906 by Mr. Fisher Unwin. 
