NINETEENTH CENTURY. 301 



and obtained the appointment of Botanical Superintendent 

 at Kew through the influence of PhiHp Miller. He brought 

 out a catalogue of the plants grown at Kew in 1789. To 

 each plant Alton added the native habitat, and the date of 

 introduction, and records, from his own recollection, those 

 that were grown by Philip Miller at Chelsea. He identified 

 those introduced by Peter Collinson with the help of his son 

 Michael ; James Lee, of Hammersmith, and Knowlton, who 

 had been gardener to James Sherard, also gave him what 

 information they could. The plants are arranged on the 

 Linnaean System, and include between five and six thousand 

 species, this number being raised to eleven thousand in the second 

 edition to which Dryander and R. Brown largely contributed, 

 published by the younger Alton in 1810-1813. William Alton 

 died in 1793, and was succeeded by his son, William Townsend 

 Alton. Since then, under the many able botanists connected with 

 it, Kew has assumed more and more the first place among the 

 Botanical Institutions of the world. Of the work of the eminent 

 botanists of this century, Lindley, Hooker, Brown, Smith, 

 Loudon, Henslow, Sowerby, and the great Darwin himself, and 

 many others, it is impossible to speak, but it is to men such as 

 these that the wonderful progress of this century is due, to say 

 nothing of those still living who are looked up to with respect 

 and admiration by the practical gardeners in this close of the 

 nineteenth century, not only in England itself but throughout 

 her vast dominions. 



In England a garden appears to have been attached even to the 

 humblest home. As early as in Tudor times the peasant tried to 

 grow a few plants around his cottage door ; and many an old 

 cottage is still covered with a vine that has stood there for 

 centuries, and many an apple tree has born its ruddy crops year 

 by year undisturbed, while the gardens of the more imposing 

 mansions hard by have passed away. Of late years the desire to 

 cultivate again some of the old-fashioned plants which had been 

 discarded, has led many to search for them in cottage gardens, 

 and thus numerous treasures have been found which had for long 

 remained hidden in some retired spot. The fruit and vegetables 

 now grown b}^ cottagers are often an example to their more 



