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1843.] 
THE GARDENERS’ CHRONICLE. 
675 
Now ready, price 4s. 67., 
Ue Ret A dyes Cy ues teaver ty 
: y Epwarp Soury, Esq., Jun. F.R.S., 
Experimental Chemist to the Horticultural Society of London, 
Hon. Mem, of the Royal Agricultural Society, and Lecturer 
on Chemistry at the Royal Institution. 
London: 3, Charles-street, Covent Garden. 
Cie Grarbeners’ epronicte. 
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1848. 
MEETINGS FOR THE FOLLOWING WEEK. 
Horticnltural . 
Botanical. . 
‘Tuesday, October 3 . 
Frid, — 6 
+ BPM 
+ 8pm 
Rumours of further important alterations in the 
Royal Botanic Garden of Kew having found their 
way into the daily papers, we have made such inquiry 
into their truth as enables us to state the exact facts, 
We need not do more than remind our readers that 
after a careful investigation of the state of Kew in the 
year 1838, by order of the Government of the day, 
and after an attempt made a few years afterwards by 
some gentlemen connected with Lord Melbourne’s 
Government, but not by that minister himself, to break 
up and disperse the collection, had been frustrated, 
this noble establishment was transferred from the 
Lord Steward’s department of the Royal Household 
to the department of Woods and Forests, and placed 
under the able direction of Sir William Jackson 
Hooker. On several occasions we have adverted to 
the great improvements that immediately followed 
this wise measure, in conjunction with an immediate 
discontinuance of that narrow-minded exclusiyeness 
which had well nigh ruined the Garden. We have 
spoken of the altered system of cultivation—of the 
renovated collections,—of the excellent plan of naming 
the plants—of old walls pulled down,—thickets cleared 
of their rubbish,— old houses repaired and others built, 
—and of a general infusion of more than its former 
activity into an establishment whose decrepitude had 
for years been the wonder of Europe and the scandal 
of England. 
Of such improvements there has been no cessation ; 
on the contrary, all that a full examination of the state 
of the Garden has shown to be required in order to 
render it effective has been liberally sanctioned by the 
Commissioners of Woods and Forests. ‘The noble 
Lord at the head of that departinent has taken a 
personal interest in the works, and no doubt can now 
be entertained that the Royal Botanic Garden at 
Kew will soon become, as it ought to be, the first 
establishment of the kind in Europe. While the 
parks near London are rendered, by the excellent 
plan of naming the trees and shrubs there, a source of 
information and delight to those who seek for no more 
knowledge than floats on the surface of things, 
others who desire to apply themselves to the study of 
the Vegetable Kingdom in detail, and as a branch of 
Science, can do so at Kew with all the advantages 
which the most extensive collections can afford them. 
To enable the public to gratify their increasing taste 
In this way, the Garden is open freely to all comers, 
daily, except Sundays, from | to 6; and that this is 
no small source of enjoyment may be gathered from 
the fact that, although Kew is 7 miles from London, 
and few people yet know that the Garden is open 
gratuitously, upwards of 20,000 persons have visited 
it within the last 12 months; and, be it added, 
Without any serious cause having arisen for regret 
at the adoption of so liberal a measure. Additions 
to the plants are flowing in from all quarters; com- 
Thunications are opened with almost every part of 
the world, whence valuable acquisitions may be 
€xpected, and collectors are despatched to foreign 
Countries to assist in augmenting the supplies. 
When Sir William Hooker took charge of the 
Barden in 1841, it consisted of only eleven acres, 
Including the Arboretum. These, during the very first 
Winter, were altered and improved, and the four acres 
Were added on which stand the large Conservatory, 
built by King William the Fourth, and the noble 
rangery belonging to the d-fashioned 
Bibematory, crowded in the winter with large plants 
tubs 
The latter building has since been greatly improved, 
by having a large window opened out at each end, and 
these ends made to correspond with the front, while 
Powerful ventilators have been constructed at the back ; 
and it is now a very handsome place, well adapted for 
the purposes it wasintended for. A large double pro- 
Pagating-house has been built upon an admirable con- 
. 
4 Struction, heated with hot water, and furnished with 
ate tables, and slate tanks for catching the rain-water, 
n Orchidaceous house has been doubled in size, com- 
Pletely renewed within, and heated upon the best 
Principles, with a double hot-water tank in the céntre, 
pvered with slate. This house, however, is not likely 
1 remain of sufficient size for the Orchidaceous col- 
®ction, for many species are still kept necessarily in a 
Propagatin g-house, equally well suited to their growth. 
One half of this fine Orchidaceous-house is occupied 
by a noble collection of such plants from Woburn, 
which his Grace the Duke of Bedford presented to the 
Queen, and which her Majesty graciously resigned to 
the Royal Gardens of Kew. “There is an inscription 
indicative of this present. The Cactus-house has been 
doubled in size, and heated by hot-water pipes, and is 
now wholly filled with a most ‘extensive collection of 
such plants, many of which have been procured by 
purchase, and others presented by the late Mr. Lam- 
bert, Mr.. Parkinson, and others. Among them is 
the Cochineal Cactus, bearing the Cochineal 
insect, the gift of Mr. Bruce. ‘The house, thus 
extended, is made to join and open into the Heath- 
house, which, indeed, is itself almost a new construc- 
tion, and filled with Heaths or allied genera. From 
this building the hot-water pipes are conducted into 
the side pits on the outside, where many varieties are 
now cultivated. The large Proteaceous-house, and 
what has been called the Cape-house, have been much 
improved by the removal or alteration of the steep 
shelving which till lately deformed them, and the 
plants are seen to much greater advantage. 
It was not intended to make any further alteration 
in the stoves at this season, because the almost imme- 
diate erection of a magnificent hothouse is contem- 
plated ; but in consequence of her Majesty’s present 
of Orchidacese, Sir W. Hooker felt it his duty to 
make a requisition to the Commissioners of Woods 
and Forests for the enlargement of the first large stove 
on the left hand side as you enter the garden. This, 
like every other reasonable application that has been 
made for benefiting these noble gardens, was imme- 
diately granted. The important alterations are at 
the present moment in progress, and the house 
will soon be completed on the most approved princi- 
ples; the glazing of the new portion being with sheet 
glass, and the heating partly on the tank system 
and partly with hot-water pipes. 
uch has been the progress in renovating the Kew 
garden up to the present time—But other and grander 
plans, more worthy of a great nation, are either in pro- 
gress or under consideration. The excellent manage- 
ment of Lord Lincoln, and the skilful advice of Sir 
William Hooker, can hardly fail in rendering them 
worthy alike of the establishment and of the country ; 
and we are persuaded that in the erection of them, 
utility, beauty, and needful economy, will be alike 
consulted. We know that the able architect and 
master of the works, Mr. Robinson, is devoting his 
best energies to the consideration of the plan of a 
magnificent stove, and it is probable that his designs 
will be completed in a few weeks. It is intended that 
this building shall be 200 feet long (exclusive of the 
approach or vestibule), 100 feet wide, and 55 high. 
Like the great Conservatory at Chatsworth, it will 
have a lofty centre surrounded by aisles (forming one 
interior), with a carriage drive through the middle. 
But it was impracticable to find a site for so large 
a building within the old and narrow limits of the 
garden; and this impossibility compelled Sir W, 
Hooker to make application for an extension of the 
garden, from the adjoining pleasure-grounds, which in 
themselves are in the highest degree beautiful and 
ornamental, and are already stocked with fine trees, 
Seventeen acres were at first asked for ; but if we are 
not misinformed, upon this plan being submitted to 
the consideration of the Duke of Cambridge, 
who, as well as the Duchess, takes the deepest interest 
in all that concerns the prosperity of the Gardens, 
and their being made available to the public good, 
H.R.H. saw that by taking into the Botanic 
ground an area of rather more than forty (we believe 
forty-six) acres, surrounded by a magnificent belt of 
wood, and including a fine piece of water, the form of 
the Botanic Garden, and what remained of the plea- 
sure-ground, would be better preserved. This view 
was also taken by the Woods and Forests ; and at this 
moment a light and elegant wire fencing—so light, 
indeed, that the grounds they separate appear to be 
but one—is actually in progress. The Garden, there- 
fore, may now be reckoned to contain sixty acres, and 
a more suitable piece, whether as to extent, or beauty, | 
or convenience as to distance from the metropolis, | 
cannot, perhaps, be found in the world. The noble | 
stove above alluded to will be erected on this area, a | 
large portion of which will be occupied as Arboretum, 
Having thus stated the facts connected with the 
Royal Botanic Garden, as far as they are at present 
within our knowledge, we cannot but advert to certain | 
newspaper attacks upon the King of Hanover, in | 
which that Sovereign is asserted to have « obstinately | 
refused his consent to the proposed measures.” | 
This, and similar statements respecting Kew, tending | 
to prejudice the King in the public mind, we have | 
authority for asserting are wholly untrue. It is, in- | 
deed, not to be denied, that, at first, his Majesty | 
showed some displeasure at the many alterations that 
had taken place, during his absence, in the domain 
which he had long been accustomed to look upon as 
regal and patrimonial property ; but no sooner was 
the nature of the alteration in <question explained to 
him, with the improvement it would be to the property 
as viewed from the Palace and from the other Royal 
residences, together with the advantage the public 
would derive from it, than his opposition, if so 
it can be called, was withdrawn. 
And now that we have alluded to this gossip of the 
day, we may as well contradict another story, of similar 
origin, which asserts that the King of Hanover would 
not permit the British Association to construct a path- 
way to an old Observatory in Kew Park, which has 
lately been placed at the disposal of that body. No 
such pathway was ever required by the Astronomer 
who formerly had charge of the building; the Royal 
Family never experienced the want of it when the 
visited it; and to construct it would be so costly that 
we do not for one moment believe that the managers 
of the British Association would think of misapply- 
ing the money they are intrusted with in so indefen- 
sible a manner. We believe the story, the origin of 
which we can easily guess, to be either wholly un- 
founded or an enormous exaggeration. 
WHEN we were considering the means of increasing 
the comforts of agricultural labourers our attention 
was chiefly directed to their education, and the means 
by which they might be more independent of the vicis- 
situdes arising from a greater or less demand for labour. 
A correspondent drew our attention to the subject of 
early and i ident marriag ne of the natural 
results of that reliance on parish charity, which should 
be a comfort to declining strength and helpless old 
age, but which the young and active should look for- 
ward to as a great evil to be avoided, if possible. In 
those seh oe there is no legal provision for 
the destitute, idea of the wants of sickness and old 
age is continually present in the mind of*the daily 
labourer. It is a stimulus to exertion and self-denial ; 
and no man would feel happy and comfortable if he 
had not some little storereserved for sickness or accident. 
Hence young men hire themselves out to farmers, who 
lodge and feed them, and they lay by the greater part 
of their wages for several years before they venture to 
marry. The young women dothe same. In Prussia a 
man is not permitted to marry until he bas a certain 
sum wherewith to begin the world. This would be 
looked upon as an intolerable tyranny in a free 
country like Britain ; but of all arbitrary laws few are 
better calculated to inerease the comforts of the 
lower orders. In other parts of Germany, where there 
is no such Jaw, custom and prudence have the same 
effect: a ycung man of eighteen will receive from 8/, 
to 10/. a year wages, besides his board and lodging ; 
much less than half this sum keeps him decently in 
clothes ard linen. In ten years he has accumulated 
a sum sufficient to buy a cottage and a piece of land. 
The young woman, to whom he has been long engaged, 
has also been in service, and saved 3V. or 4/. a year, 
which at the end of a few years amounts to a sum 
sufficient to furnish a cottage. As soon as this is 
provided they marry, settle themselves comfortably, 
buy a cow and a pig; and while the husband con- 
tinues to work for his old master, or for another, the 
wife takes care of the garden, the cow, and the pig. 
They have children ; but these are no burden to them 
—as scon as they can run about they begin to 
useful; they go to the village school, where they learn 
subordination and the rudiments of learning suited to 
their station ; and in the intervals of school-hours they — 
assist the mother in her domesticarrangements. Her 
time is fully and usefully employed, and if she occa- 
sionally works in the fields, it is at harvest, when good 
wages are paid. The husband returns from his work 
in the evening, and finds a hot supper ready,—if it were 
only some boiled milk and bread, but most commonly 
a mess of vegetables stewed with a piece of pork, or a 
kind of soup chiefly made from vegetables, with the 
addition of a piece of butter or a little meat, in which 
his brown bread is soaked, 
The comfort produced by a hot meal, as well as its 
economy, can only be appreciated by those who are 
accustomed to it; and the use of skimmed milk or 
butter-milk for this purpose is one of the great advan- 
tages in keeping a cow. With a cow and a little 
industry there is seldom any poverty. The cow is 
kept constantly in the stall ; grass is cut by the side of 
roads’ and fields, which otherwise would only produce 
weeds. A spot of Lucerne in thegarden, or little field, 
may be cut five times in the season, if kept clean by 
weeding. In winter there are Turnips, Cabbages, 
Carrots, and Potatoes. A few Beans soaked in water 
add richness to the milk, and these are easily raised 
in the garden. The butter is mostly sold. A calf 
is reared or fatted, ding to cir $5 
and a great part of the husband’s earnings can 
be laid by for times ‘of accident or sickness, 
Should they be spared in health, the time may~come 
when a little field may be purchased, or when 2 
daughter is to be married, or a son set up in some 
small business or trade. When time has brought 
grey hairs there are dutiful sons and daughters, who 
will not see their aged parents overworked or in want 
of comforts in their old age. With the same affection 
