THE GARDEN ROUTINE 179 



a light suit and a flat topped felt hat or occasionally a white 

 * topper.' It is recorded, however, that once being cornered 

 in the Herbarium by distinguished visitors, he dashed into 

 Oliver's room and borrowed a black coat in place of his 

 working jacket. 



Each corner of the Gardens would suggest a particular 

 aspect of Kew's activities : travel and discovery ; special 

 modes of cultivating tropical plants, which at last made even 

 the languishing plants flourish and the flourishing ones expand 

 beyond their enforced limits to the veritable splendour of their 

 own homes ; and not least, the abounding benefit arising from 

 the practical side of economic botany. 



He always rose early and worked before breakfast. As to 

 his ordinary routine, the day's work had its share of outdoor 

 movement in the morning round of the houses and gardens. 

 This, the gardening side of his work, though he enjoyed it, 

 was not his special metier in the same way as botanical science. 

 He was not a gardener steeped in the empirical treatment 

 so different from the plants' natural conditions with which 

 travel and travellers had made him familiar. The story runs 

 that on his round of the houses he marked a particular plant 

 and gave an order : ' Don't water this ; it is in Nature's 

 three months' drought.' The foreman followed just after 

 with a nod and a whisper : * Never mind what Sir Joseph 

 says ! ' All the same, cultivation reached a high level under 

 the Hookers' regime, though with supplies pared down to 

 the barest minimum, it was a struggle to maintain things 

 adequately. The palmiest days for this side of the Gardens 

 could only be when the Department was ruled by a minister 

 who had personal appreciation of such work and helped it 

 with a liberal hand. 



The largest part of the day's work, however, lay in the 

 correspondence. Letters poured in every day from Europe 

 and Asia, Africa, Australia and America, with enquiries about 

 plants large and small. In the Herbarium curator and 

 assistants would be busy naming plants from the most out- 

 of-the-way parts of the world. These were generally sent in 



