THE GARDEN'S DECLINE 83 



with. Summer lectures ceased. Permanent 

 labourers were discharged. A greenhouse was 

 sold. Tender plants were exchanged for hardy 

 ones, and no fires were lit in the hot-house 

 where Miller had grown some of the first 

 tropical orchids seen in England. 



For nearly ten years the Garden remained 

 under partial eclipse. A projected railway 

 which would have destroyed the Garden must 

 have deepened the shadow. Still the Apothe- 

 caries continued their prizes in order to 

 encourage botanical students. Sir Joseph 

 Hooker was now examiner. In 1858 he re- 

 ported that the examination was the most 

 satisfactory one he had ever conducted. Charles 

 Hilton Fagge 1 won the gold medal. In 1861, 

 Sir Joseph Hooker reported that Mr. Henry 

 Trimen, 2 the gold medallist, was " distin- 

 guished beyond all others." The names of 

 William Jenner and Thomas Henry Huxley 

 also appear among the gold medallists. 



Both Lord Cadogan and the Royal Society 

 were now approached with the view of getting 

 rid of the responsibility of the Garden. In 

 both cases the offer was declined. 



Then a brave attempt was made to give the 

 Garden new life. The master and wardens 

 wrote a letter to members of the Apothecaries' 

 Society to say that " when they reflected how 

 much benefit the Garden had conferred in 

 times gone by, with what pride it had been 



1 Fagge was physician to Guy's Hospital, and author of one of 

 the most important books of medicine in its day. 



2 Trimen, well-known botanist, published with Sir W. Thisel- 

 ton Dyer. Flora of Middlesex. His Flora of Ceylon was completed 

 after Trimen's death, by Sir Joseph Hooker. 



