MXETEENTII CENTURY, 293 



Kew has not been properly pointed out. They were be<;^un 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. 

 Uclighted Thame? through tropic umbrage glides, 

 And flowers antarctic, bending o'er his tides; 

 Drinks the new tints, the sweets unknown inhales, 

 And calls ihe sons of Science to his vales." 



The importance of Kew gradually increased under the manage- 

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

 and obtained the appointment of Botanical Superintendent 

 at Kew through the influence of Philip Miller. He brought 

 out a catalogue of the plants grown at Kew in 1789. To 

 each plant Alton added the native habitat, and the date of 

 introduction, and records, from his own recollection, those 

 that were grown by Philip Miller at Chelsea. He identified 

 those introduced by Peter Collinson with the help of his son 

 Michael ; James Lee, of Hammersmith, and Knowlton, who 

 had been gardener to James Sherard, also gave him what 

 information they could. The plants are arranged on the 

 Linnsean System, and include between five and six thousand 

 species, this number being raised to eleven thousand in the second 

 edition to which Dryander and R. Brown largely contributed, 

 published by the younger Alton in 1810-1813. William Alton 

 died in 1793, and was succeeded by his son, William Townsend 

 Alton. Since then, under the many able botanists connected with 

 it, Kew has assumed more and more the first place among the 

 Botanical Institutions of the world. Of the work of the great 

 botanists of this century, Lindley, Hooker, Brown, Smith, 



