OBSERVATIONS ON KEW BOTANIC GARDEN. 167 



advantageous to the public ; for of the 483 deliveries in 32 years, 

 208 have taken place in those last 10 years, and the smallest number 

 occurred in the years 1809, 1810, 1811, 1812, 1813, and 1814, 

 when the deliveries did not quite average five a year ; in 1811, they 

 amounted only to two, and at this time it may be presumed that the 

 garden possessed the greatest resources. 



After all the explanation that has been offered; after allowing full 

 weight to the assertion that the Botanical Garden at Kew has always 

 been a private establishment ; admitting, moreover, that a larger 

 number of plants has been given away than is generally supposed, 

 and that in many cases applications for plants have been liberally 

 complied with, which is undoubtedly the fact, it really does seem 

 impossible to say that it has been conducted with that liberality or 

 anxiety to promote the ends of science, and to render it useful to the 

 country, which it is usual to meet with in similar institutions else- 

 where. 



So far as the Lord Steward's department is concerned, the Botanical 

 Garden at Kew is a dead weight upon the civil list; for, unconnected 

 as it is with any of the palaces now occupied as royal residences, it 

 has become a mere magazine of materials, very valuable, no doubt, 

 with which to stock the other royal gardens : it would require a very 

 large outlay of money to render it at all suitable for a royal pleasure- 

 ground, and it does not appear to be wanted, now that Buckingham 

 House has become the London palace, with a fine garden to it : 

 moreover, the public will always expect that the only extensive 

 botanical garden in the country should be available for public pur- 

 poses. It is therefore recommended that the Lord Steward be relieved 

 from the burden of this garden, unless it should be Her Majesty's 

 pleasure to retain it. 



If the Botanical Garden of Kew is relinquished by the Lord Stew- 

 ard, it should either be at once taken for public purposes, gradually 

 made worthy of the country, and converted into a powerful means of 

 promoting national science, or it should be abandoned. It is little 

 better than a waste of money to maintain it in its present state, if it 

 fulfils no intelligible purpose, except that of sheltering a large quan- 

 tity of rare and valuable plants. 



The importance of public Botmkal Gardens has fur centuries been 

 recognised by the governments of civilised states, and at this time 



