INTRODUCTION. 17 



who was recommended to that situation by 

 the late Sir Joseph Banks in the year 1814. 

 Aiton and Forsyth were transplanted from 

 Chelsea Garden to Royal grounds. The 

 former is succeeded by his son in the care of 

 the King's gardens, particularly that of the 

 exotic garden of Kew, which perhaps con- 

 tains the finest collection of plants ever con- 

 gregated in any one spot on the globe. 



This exotic garden, although now so su- 

 perbly furnished with vegetable rarities, is of 

 no great antiquity, having, we are told, been 

 first established in the year 1760, by the 

 Princess Dowager of Wales ; but from an old 

 verse in the Gentleman's Magazine for the 

 year 1732, dated June 2, we find the garden 

 was of some celebrity at that time. 



" The King and the Queen, the weather being fine, 

 On Saturday last went to Richmond to dine ; 

 His Royal Highness that day was to view 

 His gardens and house, repairing at Kew." 



Evelyn writes in his Diary, Aug. 27, 1678, 

 " I went to my worthy friend Sir Henry Ca- 

 pel (at Kew), brother to the Earle of Essex: 

 it is an old timber-house ; but his garden has 

 the choicest fruit of any plantation in Eng- 

 land, as he is the most industrious and under- 

 standing in it." 



vol. i. e 



