246 KEW : 1879-1885 



upon.' 1 I should be as bad, but then I know not the 

 condition. When I go away I have work that I can always 

 take with me, official and other : and my misery is the lots 

 accumulating at home. I cannot tell you how I long to 

 throw off the trammels of official life and do like Bentham. 



Now at last he ' struck out ' for a more liberal treatment of 

 Kew, for the pay of the principal officials was far below that of 

 similar positions elsewhere ; a clerk was needed for the Director ; 

 a proper office and office keeper to relieve the Curator of work 

 after office hours, besides accommodation for a couple of good 

 gardeners and provision of further labour. 



While the Assistant Director took over most of the Garden 

 work, Hooker's special share from 1882 onwards was the 

 Arboretum, of which he was making ' a noble thing ' with 

 groups of species of trees, &c., in systematic sequence, no easy 

 task. 



In the spring of 1882, also, a new rock garden had to be 

 provided to receive a large collection of rock plants, the generous 

 bequest of Mr. G. C. Joad of Wimbledon, and the present long 

 rock garden, 160 yards in length, was made ' in the form of 

 a winding valley with rocks and tree trunks on both sides 

 rising 8-12 feet.' As a consequence of these developments, 

 it became necessary to prepare new guides for the Garden, 

 Arboretum, and Museum. The latter promised to be the most 

 complete summary of economic plants as yet published. 



Thus in the letter of November 20, 1883, to Mr. Bolus, 

 already quoted, he sums up the situation by saying : 



Everything goes on here much as when you were with 

 us, only on an annually increasing scale, the correspondence 

 especially waxes more formidable every year. The old staff 

 I am happy to say holds on, and we have no changes, only 

 additional assistants in the Herbarium. In the Garden we 

 have greatly improved the cultivation by obtaining better 

 pay for really good foremen as growers and propagators ; 

 so that now even the Orchids are praised. The Palm House, 



1 Charles Darwin was staying at Patterdale, and had written despond- 

 ently, ' I have not the heart or strength to begin any investigation lasting 

 years, which is the only thing which I enjoy, and I have no little jobs which 

 I can do.' (June 15.) 



