MODERN GARDENING 307 



first opened to the public in 1841 the numbers could be reckoned 

 in tens of thousands. They increased on such occasions as 

 the inauguration of the palm-house, or in the year of the Great 

 Exhibition of 185 1, when there were as many as 327,900. By 

 the eighties the yearly visitors amounted to 1,000,000, and in 

 1900 there were 1,111,024. In 1907 no less than 2,962,714, 

 and in 1908 2,710,220 individuals went to see the gardens. 

 This immense rise during the last few years cannot be solely 

 accounted for by the improved facilities for reaching Kew ; 

 some proportion must be due to the deepening appreciation of 

 horticulture. 



Another gauge of the advance of gardening in popularity is 

 the growth of the number of Fellows belonging to the Royal 

 Horticultural Society. For many years they had been on the 

 upward grade, but within the last decade they have gone up 

 by leaps and bounds. In 1900 there were 4,750, but the end 

 of 1908 saw 10,507 Fellows enrolled. The increase is partly due 

 to the wider sphere of work which was opened to the Society by 

 the munificent gift of the garden which had belonged to Mr. 

 G. F. Wilson at Wisley, in Surrey, by the late Sir Thomas Han- 

 bury. He will always be remembered as one of the most 

 generous and enthusiastic of gardeners by his numerous friends 

 in this country, as well as by those who were acquainted with 

 his garden at La Mortola. At Wisley a valuable School of 

 Horticulture is being carried on, as well as a delightful and in- 

 structive garden. Some Fellows have no doubt joined the 

 Society merely because their friends have done so, and the 

 shows afford a pleasant meeting-place ; but an immense majo- 

 rity are possessed of no mean knowledge, and the standard of 

 attainment they must be judged by is higher than that of fifty 

 years ago. Apart from a small proportion who have acquired 

 merely the phraseology of gardening, the very large number 

 of men and women who have a real insight of the subject would 

 astonish the gardening experts of a former generation. 



The recently stimulated desire to " garden finely " has pro- 

 duced a distinct style, which differs in many ways from any of 

 the former fashions which have had their day. Although the 

 main ideas of a " wild garden " have not been abandoned, there 

 has been a certain return to formahty. CHpped trees and 



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