VISITING THE GARDENS 201 



exertions had told on her nerves ; and after a 

 year spent in finally arranging the Kew collec- 

 tion, she was fain to seek the repose of a 

 Gloucestershire garden, which many friends 

 contributed to adorn with such beauties as she 

 had followed far and near. Here, a few years 

 later, she died in 1890. 



The North collection is unique, not only in its 

 scope and interest, but in its being the work of 

 one woman, whom Queen Victoria regretted 

 that she could distinguish by no mark of public 

 honour : in the next reign she might have been 

 rewarded by the new Order of Merit bestowed 

 on Florence Nightingale. Her legacy to the 

 nation, catalogued in more than a hundred pages, 

 pictures some thousand species of flowers and 

 plants, from nearly all parts of the world, for 

 the most part executed on the spot within little 

 over a dozen years. This is the sight no visitor 

 should miss ; and from whatever clime he comes, 

 he is almost sure to find some souvenir of it 

 blooming here under the dullest sky and the 

 chilliest influences, against which Kew Gardens 

 strive to carry out their aim of epitomising the 

 earth's vegetable life. 



