108 KEW GARDENS 



the understanding that they were to be freely 

 admitted to its amenities. 



From such extinction Kew was rescued in 

 1840 by the report of a parliamentary committee, 

 upon which steps were taken and funds provided 

 for bringing the Gardens to their present position 

 at once as a popular resort and as a national 

 scientific collection, while still they remained 

 nominally a royal demesne. Aiton being 

 pensioned off, Sir W. J. Hooker, formerly 

 Botanical Professor at Glasgow, was appointed 

 Director. Here appears another case of heredity, 

 for Hooker was the son of a botanist, and came 

 to be replaced by his own son. 



Under his management the Gardens grew 

 apace, the botanic part being much enlarged, 

 while the Museums of Economic Botany were 

 now set on foot. Decimus Burton, the fashion- 

 able architect of his day, was called in to design 

 new buildings like the Palm House, unrivalled 

 in England unless by Paxton's Great Conserva- 

 tory at Chatworth, which was the model of the 

 Crystal Palace. To make room for such useful 

 structures, a sweep had to be made of many of 

 the fanciful " temples " and other gimcrackeries 

 of the Georgian age, specimens of which are 



