300 A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND. 



can he seen by the local Exhibitions.* The Horticultural 

 Society held their first fete in 1831, and soon after the regular 

 Exhibitions began. Since then their shows and those of the 

 Botanical Society and of local societies in every town and 

 county of England, have become events of yearly, or almost 

 weekly occurrence, and the stimulus to Floriculture promoted 

 by these institutions must be apparent to all. The Botanical 

 Society of London was incorporated in 1839. That part of the 

 grounds which were devoted to the illustration of the Natural 

 Orders, were arranged by Sowerby, then the Secretary, and 

 his father, Dr. F. J. Fane and Dr. Sigmund ; and everything 

 was done to facilitate the labours of students of Scientific 

 Botany. t 



In the hasty review that has been taken of the progress of 

 Horticulture, the prominent position of the Royal Gardens at 

 Kew has not been properly pointed out. They were begun by 

 the Princess of Wales, Mother of George III., about 1760. In 

 the extremely quaint and original Poem, " The Botanic Garden," 

 in 1791, Erasmus Darwin alludes to the wonders of Kew in 

 his usual stilted verse : 



" So sits enthroned, in vegetable pride, 

 Imperial Kew by Thames' glittering side ; 

 Obedient sails from realms unfurrow'd bring 

 For her the unnam'd progeny of Spring ; 

 Attendant Nymphs her dulcet mandates hear, 

 And nurse in fostering arms the tender year ; 

 Plant the young bulb, inhume the living seed, 

 Prop the weak stem, the erring tendril lead ; 

 Or fan in glass-built fanes the stranger flowers, 

 With milder gales, and steep with warmer showers. 

 Delighted Thames through tropic umbrage glides, 

 And flowers antarctic, bending o'er his tides ; 

 Drinks the new tints, the sweets unknown inhales, 

 And calls the sons of Science to his vales." 



The importance of Kew gradually increased under the manage 

 ment of William Aitoii. This able gardener was born in 1731, 



* The Shows of the Dalston and De Beauvoir Town Amateur Chrysan- 

 themum Society, held annually, are an example of what care and attention 

 can achieve. 



f Memoirs of Dr. Frederic J. Fane. 1886. 



