PREFACE. 



The present Hand List is another instalment of the 

 complete enumeration of the plants cultivated in 

 the Royal Gardens which it is hoped eventually to 

 accomplish. 



The scope of the contents of the Hand List, which 

 are somewhat heterogeneous, is dictated in great measure 

 by convenience. It includes large groups of plants of 

 great scientific interest which, for various reasons, are 

 more attractive to ordinary cultivators than many which 

 are comprised necessarily in a botanical collection. For 

 this reason it is hoped that it may be found not less 

 useful than its predecessors. 



A few words may be said as to the history at Kew 

 of the more important of the groups now catalogued. 



SCITAMINE^. 



An order including Gingers, Arrowroot-plants, and 

 Musas. It numbers some 450 species, of which 240 are 

 in cultivation at Kew. Almost all are natives of the 

 tropics. About 40 species are given in 1813 in the 

 second edition of Alton's Hortus Kewensis, and 139 

 by John Smith, curator of the Royal Gardens, 1841-63, 

 in his privately printed Records of Kew (p. 222) as 

 forming " the Kew collection between the years 1822 

 and 1864." 



Musa Ensete, one of the most popular representatives 

 of the family and a conspicuous ornament of the gardens 



U 97169 1000.— 7/97. Wt. 1265. j^ 2 



