HISTORICAL GARDENS 321 



works on British ferns, continued alone as Curator. He 

 held the office from 1848 to 1887. During his later years 

 the Garden gradually declined for want of funds, and 

 after his death no new appointment was made by the 

 Apothecaries, and a labourer looked after the grounds. 

 With the advent of the new authority and great expan- 

 sion of work, the office was once more bestowed on a 

 competent man, William Hales, the present Curator, who 

 ably maintains the old traditions of the garden. 



One of the institutions of early days which has had 

 to be discontinued was the " herborising." Expeditions 

 in search of herbs were undertaken by the students, in 

 company of their teacher, in the neighbourhood. After 

 1834, owing to the spread of London, these excursions 

 had to be abandoned. 



The famous cedars were planted in Watt's time, and 

 from contemporary references to them, there seems no 

 doubt that they were the first to be grown in England. 

 John Evelyn in his " Sylva " in 1663, writing of the 

 cedar, says, "Why should it not thrive in Old England?" 

 and Ray is astonished in 1684 to see the young trees 

 flourishing at Chelsea without protection. They are 

 shown in a plan of the Garden in 1753 (the year of Sir 

 Hans Sloane's death) at the four corners of a pond, 

 which no longer remains in the same position. Eighteen 

 years later the two furthest from the river were cut 

 down (1771)' " b^^^g ^" ^ decayed state " (and no wonder) 

 from the rough usage they had been subjected to. The 

 timber, 133! feet, was sold at 2s. 8d. a foot, and, together 

 with the branches, the trees fetched ^23, 9s. 8d. The 

 two specimens nearest the river were for nearly a hundred 

 years a conspicuous object, although much injured by 

 snow in 1809. By 1871, only one remained, and, in a 



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