GARDENS PUBLIC AND BOTANICAL 



society to this effect : " Chelsea Physick Garden has 

 great variety of plants both in and out of greenhouses : 

 their perennial green hedges, and rows of different 

 coloured herbs are very pretty ; so are the banks set 

 with shades of herbs in Irish stitch-way." 



In 1820, Henry Field, a member of the society, pub- 

 lished a delightful account of them. They continue in 

 excellent condition, and are the only gardens belonging 

 to a society that have been kept up for so long a space 

 of time. 



The finest botanical gardens in the world are those 

 at Kew. Their history is not uninteresting. They 

 first come into notice about the middle of the seven- 

 teenth century as the property of a Mr. Bennett, whose 

 daughter married a Lord Capet, taking the estates with 

 her. Later on, the astronomer Molyneux married 

 Elizabeth Capet, and the place passed to him. He was 

 secretary to the Prince of Wales, later George II, 

 whose son, Frederick, father of George III, took a 

 great fancy to Kew, finally leasing it from the Capet 

 family for a long period. He immediately began to 

 improve the grounds, which contained some two hun- 

 dred and seventy acres of a charmingly diversified 

 character. After his death his widow, Princess Augusta, 

 continued this work with enthusiasm, commissioning 

 Sir William Chambers to build temples, summer- 

 houses, and gates that still delight the eye. She also 

 commenced the exotic department, to which donations 



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