JULY 31, 1902] 
WMA TORE 3 
321 
THE CHELSEA PHYSIC GARDEN. 
N ANY of the readers of NATURE will be aware that 
the Physic Garden at Chelsea has for some time 
past been undergoing numerous alterations and improve- 
ments in order to enable it once more to take up its old 
position as a centre of botanical instruction and research. 
New laboratories and plant-houses have been erected, 
and on Friday, July 25, these were opened by Earl 
Cadogan, K.G., who expressed the hope that a long | 
career of usefulness now lay before them. Mr. Hayes- 
Fisher, M.P., who presided on the occasion of the | 
ceremony and who has throughout the reorganisation 
taken a most active part in the matter, gave a sketch of 
the history of the Garden and an outline of the purposes | 
to which it is henceforth to be devoted. 
Since its foundation by the Society of Apothecaries 
some 220 years ago, the Physic Garden has passed 
through many vicissitudes of fame and fortune, and its 
history is full of interest to the antiquary and the botanist 
alike. It has numbered many eminent men amongst its 
past curators, and as Sir W. Thiselton-Dyer remarked, 
it gave a curator to that younger physic garden which 
has since developed into the magnificent institution at 
Kew. Although it was primarily designed to provide for 
the proper study of medicinal plants, it soon began to | 
serve as a channel through which new foreign plants 
became introduced into this country, and it is said 
(though not without contradiction) that the first cedars 
of Lebanon to be grown in Britain were the four trees | 
planted in 1683 and formerly thriving in the Garden, of 
which the last only finally succumbed some two or three 
years ago. 
It seems to have excited some surprise even in those 
early years to discover how well plants were found to 
succeed in the Garden, and Evelyn, who visited it in 
1685, remarks on the excellent condition of the collections 
as a whole, and he also incidentally refers to the then 
novel method of heating the conservatory by heat con- 
veyed subterraneously from a stove situated under the 
building. 
Some fifty years later, Linnzus in 1736 visited the 
Garden, and he records in his diary that Millar (the 
gardener) allowed him to collect a number of plants and 
also gave him some dried specimens. The note is of 
interest as illustrating the importance which at that time 
attached to the place. For many years it continued to 
be more or less used, chiefly by medical students, but its 
maintenance proved a heavy tax on the somewhat narrow 
resources of the Society of Apothecaries, and as neither 
the Royal Society nor the College of Physicians, both of 
which had an interest in it under the terms of the original 
conveyance, in accordance with the intentions and wishes 
of Sir Hans Sloane, would accept the responsibility, the 
Charity Commissioners were approached with the view of 
devising a scheme which would provide for the relin- 
quishing of the trust whilst at the same time securing 
its continuance as a scientific institution. 
Henry Longley became interested in the matter, and a 
departmental committee, consisting of Sir Henry Long- | 
ley, Sir W. Thiselton-Dyer and Mr. Spring-Rice, was 
appointed by the Treasury to inquire into the matter. 
The outcome of the various deliberations and nego- 
tiations has been the passing of a Scheme in 1899 
whereby was ensured the preservation for the practical 
study of botany in London of a venerable institution and 
an excellent garden. The Trustees of the London 
Parochial Charities, subject to ce¥ttain conditions, 
provide an annual income of 800/, whilst the 
Treasury, through the Board of Education, sub- 
sidises it by a further amount of 150/. per annum in 
consideration of certain rights and privileges thereby 
attaching to the Royal College of Science. 
is administered by the Trustees of the London Parochial 
Charities, and by a Committee of Management, the seven- 
NO. 1709, VOL. 66] 
The late Sir | 
teen members of which are appointed in accordance with 
definite regulations laid down in the scheme. 
In adapting the Garden toits new purposes various neces- 
sary changes have been effected in connection both with 
the buildings and also with the outdoor department. A 
strip of land required for the purpose of widening Queen’s 
Road was sold to the Chelsea Borough Council, and this 
involved the demolition of the old lecture-rooms and 
curator’s house, together with two lean-to greenhouses. 
Moreover, the main range of plant-houses had fallen into 
a hopelessly ruinous condition, and their removal was 
decided upon, the intention being to erect a new range of 
plant-houses, together with laboratories and a curator’s 
residence, along the revised north-western boundary of the 
Garden. This has now been done, and it was to witness 
the opening of these new buildings that the gathering 
assembled on Friday last. 
The laboratories and curator’s house have been de- 
signed by Mr. G. E. Rivers, of H.M. Office of Works. 
The laboratories are comprised in a two-storied building 
which contains on the ground floor a large main class- 
room, to be fitted up with working tables ; out of this open 
a greenhouse, to be used for physiological purposes, and 
also two smaller rooms and a convenient dark-room. 
Upstairs there is a large laboratory which will also be 
available for lecture purposes, and there are three other 
smaller rooms, one of which will be appropriated to con- 
tain the library and working garden herbarium. The 
basement of the building has ample convenience for 
storing and other purposes. 
The plant-houses, built by Messrs. Foster and Pearson, 
are arranged on the corridor system that experience 
shows to be both economical and easily worked. A 
single corridor runs along inside the boundary wall, and 
out of this open three houses designed for stove, inter- 
mediate and cool plants respectively. Two excellent 
pits are connected with the range and are heated by 
the same boilers. The houses, taken as a whole, are 
not large, but they will suffice for the practical require- 
ments of the Garden. 
Only one of the old glass-houses—a large lean-to on 
the south-western wall—has been retained. It is anun- 
heated structure, and it was here that Moore, the well- 
known authority on ferns, grew the greater part of his 
collection. The rest of the old plant-houses have now, 
as has already been said, disappeared. The place where 
they formerly stood is marked by the three small tanks 
formerly built into them, but which are now situated in 
the grass in front of the laboratories. ‘ 
Doubts have often been expressed as to whether it 
would be possible to grow the plants necessary to enable 
the Garden to discharge its new functions. A visit to 
the place would soon dispel any such fears, for it inay be 
at once seen that a very large proportion of the her- 
baceous species flourish luxuriantly under cultivation 
there. The fine aspect, with the river frontage, is partly 
responsible for this, and it is fortunate that for edu- 
| cational uses the greater part of the needed specimens 
The Garden | 
can be provided in the form of herbaceous species. 
Some of these are of course more difficult to manage than 
others, but experience shows that by the exercise of 
discretion in the selection of appropriate material_ the 
obstacles imposed by climate and environment in the 
way of forming a representative collection such as is 
needed by students can for the most part be easily 
surmounted. 
In the Garden, as in the laboratories, it is intended 
that provision shall be made for experimental and other 
investigations, and certain plots of ground will be set 
aside for these purposes as occasion may arise. And in 
order that effect may be given to these intentions, 
general regulations under which the various resources of 
the Garden may be made as widely available as practicable 
will be issued early in the ensuing autumn. 
