MODERN BOTANIC GARDENS 45 



tions of plants published about that period in such 

 works as The Botanical Register and Botanical 

 Magazine which last is continued to this day 

 can thoroughly understand the enrichment of 

 greenhouses and stoves which then took place 

 through the importation of new and desirable 

 plants. 



But during the succeeding reigns there followed 

 a time of great depression, and the flame of botani- 

 cal enthusiasm, which had burnt so brightly, 

 gradually sunk down flickering, and might have 

 been altogether extinguished, but for the patient 

 love and unwearied care of the superintendent 

 and his able lieutenant. Twenty years later, when 

 Queen Victoria came to the throne, the royal gar- 

 dens had fallen from their once high estate, and 

 it became a serious question whether they should 

 be given up and dismantled or be raised on a dif- 

 ferent footing to the status of a great national 

 garden. Happily the commissioners appointed 

 took the latter view, the Government of the day 

 acquiescing ; and how amply their action has been 

 justified in the wonderful establishment which is 

 dear to English-speaking people all the world over 

 by the short but comprehensive name of Kew is no 

 secret. There have been plenty of ups and downs 

 since then how could it be otherwise in the evo- 

 lution of so vast an enterprise ? But perhaps no- 

 thing is more expressive of the present wide-spread 

 interest in all subjects connected with horticulture 

 than the way in which this and other botanic estab- 

 lishments, without losing one jot of their scientific 

 efficiency, have become at the same time leaders 



