OBSERVATIONS ON KEW BOTANIC GARDEN. 169 



already disposed of; there is no unity of purpose among them ; their 

 objects are unsettled; their powers wasted, from not receiving a 

 proper direction ; they afford no aid or assistance to each other, and 

 it is to be feared, in some cases, but little to the countries in which 

 they are established ; and yet they are capable of conferring very im- 

 portant benefits upon commerce, and of conducing essentially to 

 colonial prosperity. 



A National Botanical Garden would be the centre around which 

 all those minor establishments should be arranged ; they should be 

 all under the control of the chief of that garden, acting in concert 

 with him, and through him with each other, reporting constantly their 

 proceedings, explaining their wants, receiving their supplies, and 

 aiding the mother country in every thing that is useful in the vege- 

 table kingdom. Medicine, commerce, agriculture, horticulture, and 

 many valuable branches of manufacture, would derive considerable 

 advantages from the establishment of such a system. 



From a garden of this kind, Government would always be able to 

 obtain authentic and official information upon points connected with 

 the establishment of new colonies ; it would afford the plants required 

 on those occasions, without its being necessary, as is now the case, 

 to apply to the officers of private establishments for advice and 

 assistance. 



Such a garden would be the great source of new and valuable 

 plants to be introduced and dispersed through this country ; it would 

 be a powerful means of increasing the pleasure of those who already 

 possess gardens, and, what is far more important, it would undoubt- 

 edly become an efficient instrument in refining the taste, increasing 

 the knowledge, and augmenting the amount of rational pleasures of 

 that important class of society, to provide for the instruction of which 

 has become so great and wise an object with the present enlightened 

 administration. 



Purposes like these could not be effectually accomplished with such 

 a place as the Botanical Garden of Kew now is. The present esta- 

 blishment would, however, form an admirable foundation; and the 

 facility of reaching it, either by land or water, renders it impossible 

 to select a better site in the vicinity of the metropolis. 



To make it effective, it should be enlarged by the increase of at 

 least 30 acres from the pleasure-grounds of Kew. Considerable 



