VISITING THE GARDENS 199 



they are weeds, and nothing more. But here these 

 things are preserved ; in London, the centre of civilisation 

 and science, is a garden which restores the ancient know- 

 ledge of the monks and the witches of the villages. 



But whatever else at Kew be done or left 

 undone, the stranger must be pointed to what 

 is almost the latest and not least attractive of 

 its spectacles the North Gallery, that stands on 

 the Richmond road side, beyond the mound on 

 which a Douglas pine rears what boasts itself 

 the tallest flagstaff in the world, and near where 

 the walk is crossed by an imitation ruined arch, 

 overgrown with greenery, which in Sir W. 

 Chambers's time seemed an ornamental manner 

 of carrying a roadway out of the grounds. The 

 pretty building itself will at once invite atten- 

 tion ; then hours may be spent in examining 

 its contents, the gift and handiwork of Miss 

 Marianne North, who well deserved to stand 

 godmother to several plants brought to know- 

 ledge by her researches. 



This lover of flowers, a descendant from the 

 Roger North remembered by his biography of 

 three notable brothers, was born at Hastings, 

 for which her father sat in Parliament. Her 

 desire to see and to paint the tropics was 



