VISITING THE GARDENS 185 



they find a not forbidding environment, and a 

 fair chance to elbow a place for themselves in 

 the struggle for existence. In a less degree, 

 the same conquest is to be noted in America, 

 the old -settled Eastern States having been 

 largely colonised by imported growths, while 

 the indigenous flora retreated with the Red Man 

 to the inland woods and prairies. From the more 

 southerly regions of America, we Europeans 

 have got more than we give, in Indian corn, the 

 tomato, the pineapple, and the hardy potato, 

 that for our damp Western islands has come to 

 be the staff of life as it was on the dry sunny 

 heights of its native Bolivia, though in Britain, 

 as in some parts of the Continent, it had at 

 first to live down most pig-headed prejudices. 

 Besides naturalising the productions of other 

 climates, Kew has the less noted function of 

 exporting our seeds to try their luck abroad, as, 

 for instance, barrels of acorns hence sent to take 

 prosperous root in South Africa. 



For the timbers, huge, rich, rare, beautiful 

 and useful, of these exotic trees, and for their 

 products, we turn to the Museums and Economic 

 Houses that are the most instructive part of this 

 exhibition. Here Masters Sandford and Merton 



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