x PREFACE 



by the statement that there are no old official records in his 

 possession. Indeed, when we consider the history of the 

 management of the Garden, nothing is more natural than that 

 there should not have been. And so the chronicler is depen- 

 dent upon external sources of information sometimes of a 

 very scrappy nature. It is stated that now a private register 

 is being kept of the date of accession of every single plant in 

 the collection, and of every single root, bulb, or packet of 

 seeds that is sent away, with the name of the recipient. 

 It would obviously be unfair to the compilers to have creamed 

 so stupendous a record, even had it been accessible, but 

 occasional consultations might have saved many errors. 



The chief sources of information other than those to which 

 acknowledgment is made, have been the Garden labels and 

 the Oxford University Gazette. I have required, and received, 

 assistance in all the departments touched upon in this book. 

 To past and present officers of the Royal Gardens at my old 

 home at Kew I owe much : to the works of Sir Joseph 

 Hooker, for whose recent loss to the world of Science, botanists 

 are still mourning, and to the late Curator of the Gardens, 

 Mr. George Nicholson, I am under especial obligations. At 

 Oxford, Mr. Baker and other members of the staff have 

 answered occasional questions concerning the Garden, its books, 

 and its plants. Mr. G. C. Druce and Mr. Warde Fowler, to 

 whom all must turn who would discourse on Oxford botany 

 or Oxford birds, have supplied notes on that flora and fauna 

 of which they are the greatest living exponents. Messrs. Hiley 

 and Hamm have supplied lists of insects, and the Rev. 

 Hilderic Friend a valuable list of earthworms, including two 

 new forms not recorded elsewhere. The photographs, specially 

 chosen to illustrate the appearance of the Garden in Dr. 

 Daubeny's day, were, unless otherwise stated, taken by Mr. 

 Taunt, who has generally been able to ascertain the exact 

 date of each. The original woodcuts used by Dr. Daubeny, 



