

THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



" In the year 1847," he says, " her Majesty Queen 

 Victoria was graciously pleased to command that 

 those grounds at Kew which had been devoted to 

 the kitchen and forcing department should be added 

 to the Royal Botanic Garden, together with the 

 -tovesand other buildings. An excellent brick 

 structure, occupied in part by the dwelling of one of 

 the foremen, and in part as rooms for preserving 

 fruit for the use of the Palace, was thereby vacated ; 

 and it occurred to the director that, with a little 

 alteration, this might be made a deposit for all kinds 

 of useful and curious vegetable products, which 

 neither the living plants of the garden nor the 

 specimens in the herbarium could exhibit ; and that 

 such a collection would render great service, not 

 only to the scientific botanist, but to the merchant, 

 the manufacturer, the physician, the chemist, the 

 druggist, the dyer, the carpenter and cabinet-maker, 

 and artisans of every description, who might here 

 hnd the raw material (and, to a certain extent, also 

 the manufactured ox prepared article) employed in 

 their several professions, correctly named, and 

 accompanied by some account of its origin, history, 

 native country, &c, either attached to the specimens 



or recorded m a popular catalogue. The suggestion 

 jas co mm a m?ated t0 the heads rf the estaWi b shment 



For fc st°s m r :hil0nerS ° f her Ma Jesty's Woods and 

 *orertb leave w„ asked to convert the building 



u part), into a museum, and orders were 



gallery side^iiT^ r T\ to be formed > with a 



(at 



first 

 for 



•Museum of Economic Bob 



Useful and Remarkable Vegetable ftJLi?^ Guide *> tlie 



the B yai Gar m of Ke.r. By ^ r w ^it °( tlie Mu *«» ni of 

 mans, U n l2mo. 7 r V * J ' lu *^-h K.H. L^g. 



hothouses, the greenhouses, the parterres, and the S: 

 arboretum were in themselves far more than enough 

 to be controlled by any one pair of eyes ; and when 

 to this was added the magnificent museum, and the 

 prodigious herbarium, now forming part of the 

 Kew establishment, the appointment of an assistant 

 to the director became inevitable* 



We now find that Government, upon the repre- 

 sentation of Sir Wm. Molesworth, has placed the 

 herbarium, the library, and the strictly botanical 

 part of the garden under the charge of Dr. Hooker, 

 whose name is already familiar to men of science 

 all over the world as one of our most distinguished 

 naturalists, and whose learning and active super- 

 intend ance will soon render Kew as celebrated for 

 the accuracy of its nomenclature as it already is for 

 the extent and practical value of its collections. In 

 this case w r e have again a proof that Lord Palmer- 

 8Ton will put a right man in a right place when he 

 has the opportunity. Science, at least, must grate- 

 fully acknowledge its obligations to the noble lord, 

 when it finds that in a few brief months he has 

 selected three such men as Sir Roderick Murchison, 

 Dr. Graham, and Dr. Hooker, for the scientific 

 appointments which have fallen to his disposal. 



While speaking of the Botanic Garden, Kew, we 

 may also announce the gratifying fact that the 

 House of Commons has just voted 3000/. towards 

 the construction of a new museum. This sum will 

 permit a good commencement to be made, and it 

 wiil be easy to make additions to the building as 

 the necessity for them arises. We trust that, what- 

 ever plan may be adopted in the construction of this 

 building, very ample space will be left for future 

 enlargement. The public lives in the hope of one 

 day seeing the whole of the botanical collections now 

 at the British Museum transferred to Kew r , and an 

 excellent opportunity is now afforded of making pro- 

 vision for their reception. Relieved of this part of its 

 accumulations the Museum will be able to find 

 room for the display of objects better suited to 

 London than vegetable preparations, and without 

 calling upon Parliament for some prodigious sum for 



new buildings in a place overcrowded with buildings 

 already. 



It is difficult to overestimate the practical im- 

 portance of the Museum which Kew is forming, for 

 in such a garden, and in such a garden only, is it 

 possible to combine both living and dead evidence 

 concerning the (economical, medical, or ornamental 

 value, or the scientific application of the innumerable 

 races of plants which Providence supplies for the 

 use of man. A sketch of its principal contents, just 

 published,* shows the progress that has been made, 

 and the additions which are most required in the 

 establishment. What interest is taken in it by the 

 visitors to Kew is seen by the crowded state of the 

 present nairow rooms, through which, when the 

 public is admitted, we find it difficult to force a 

 way. But upon this point, and some others relating 

 to the history of the Museum we ought to quote Sir 

 William Hooker's own words : — 



whose son, Mr. Alexander Smith, received 

 the appointment of curator. Scarcely were the 

 doors open to the public, when specimens of various 

 kinds were received from all quarters, so that it soon 

 became necessary to enlarge our accommodation, 

 till, in the present year (1855), all the ten rooms of 

 the building and all the passages are completely 

 filled, and a very large quantity of articles are put 

 aside for want of space to exhibit them. We have 

 now applied to the Crown for an entirely new 

 structure, suited to the increased and continually 

 increasing collection, and worthy alike of the noble 

 gardens of which it is a part, and of the nation. 

 One has but to see the crowds frequenting in 

 summer the existing museum (so great that the 

 director finds it frequently impossible to enter at 

 public hours with distinguished visitors, who desire 

 to have objects explained to them), to be satisfied 

 of the deep interest the public take in such a collec- 

 tion—a collection that at once appeals to the 

 faculties and understanding, showing the practical 

 uses of the study and application of botany, and the 

 services thus rendered to mankind. It has done 

 more to recommend and to popularise (if I may use 

 the expression) the science that communicates a 

 knowledge of the vegetable creation, than all the 

 princely Palms, the gorgeous Water-Lilies, the 

 elegant Ferns, &c, &c, which grace the tropical 

 houses of these noble gardens. Here (in these 

 gardens) it is true the public are privileged to see 

 growing plants of 1. the Cocoa-nut; 2. the Vege- 

 table Ivory Palm; 3. the Wax-bearing Palms 

 of Brazil and of the Andes ; 4. the Pia$aba 



the Down 



Palm ; 

 Palm ; 



5. 



7. 



the 

 the 



Coco de Mer ; 6. 



Oil Palm; 8. the 



African 

 Chocolate, Tea, Coffee, and Sugar-bearing Plants ; 

 9. the Papaver somnifcrum ; 10. the Bermudian 



11. the Isonandra Gutta ; 12. the 



13. the Siphonia 



Juniper ; 



Chinese Grass Plant (so called) 

 elastica ; 14. Bice-paper Plant (so called) of China, 

 and a hundred others of equal interest ; but the 

 visitor receives twofold gratification and twofold 

 instruction, if with these several vegetable forms in 

 his mind, he can enter an adjacent building, and 

 there contemplate their products, and see, as it were, 

 the uses which the ingenuity of man has derived 

 from them : — 1. the food and raiment, the milk, the 

 oil, the wine (toddy) the cups and bowls, cordage, 

 brushes, mats, in short, the 365 articles ( ; as many/ 

 the Hindoos say, 'as there are days in the year') 

 afforded by the common Cocoa Nut alone ; 2. the 

 ivory-like articles made from the seeds of the Vege- 

 table Ivory Palm ; 3. the excellent and now com- 



mercial wax, yielded by certain American Palms, 

 and deposited by nature on their trunks and leaves ; 



4. the useful nuts (for turnery), and still more use- 

 ful fibre (for the best brooms and brushes) of the 

 Piafaba, as the streets of our great cities can testify; 



5. the curious double nuts (with their flowers) of 

 the Coco de Mer of the Seychelles Islands, once, 

 while ignorantly supposed to be the product of a sub- 

 marine tree and only known from having been found 

 floating in the Indian Ocean, valued at the price of a 

 freighted ship, being an antidote to all poisons, ( mirum 

 miraculum naturae,' says Rumphius, 'quod princeps 

 est omnium marinarurn reruni, quae rarse habentur ;' 



6. the singularly forked stems (other Palms have 

 unbranched stems), and the large ginger-bread- 

 tasted fruits of the Doum Palm of Upper Egypt ; 

 7i the fruits and nuts of Elais Guineensis, which 

 yield the Palm oil of western tropical Africa, now 

 largely imported and consumed by Messrs. Price 

 and Co. ; and not those only, but the oil itself and 

 the several preparations it undergoes in its progress 

 towards the perfect candle, in a series of samples 

 presented by that truly philanthropic company ; 8. 

 the various and generally well-known preparations 

 of Chocolate, Tea, Coffee, and Sugar, the latter 

 extracted from an American Maple and from Beet- 

 root, as well as from the Cane ; 9. Opium in its 

 various stages, from the "poppy head," to the 

 pernicious ball prepared for commerce ; 10. the 

 progress of pencil-making of the wood of a Juniper, 

 improperly called Cedar; 11. the various interest- 

 ing products derived from the Gutta Percha plant; 



12. the fibre or raw material and cloth, made from 

 the Chinese " Grass Plant? in reality a Nettle ; 



13. cases filled with the various preparations of the 

 best Caoutchouc or India rubber tree of Pa,r&(Siphonia 

 elastica), presented by Messrs. Macintosh; 14. the 

 beautiful substance called Chinese Bice-paper, long 

 supposed to be a preparation of rice, but here shown 

 to be the exquisite pith of a new plant (Aralia 

 papyrifera), only found in Formosa, for the know- 

 ledge ana for living plants of which we are mainly 

 indebted to Sir John Bowrisg. The last-men- 

 tioned discovery is only one of many instances (u 

 will by-and-bye be .shown) of the origin and history 

 of commercial vegetable products, of which we 

 should yet have remained in utter ignorance, but 



^ior the formation of this Garden and this Museum. 



Information 



ledged and appreciated in a^eat mlrll^ 

 by every intelligent mind, and mercailtll « 





~J .*/ : a "6-^ # t"inu, ana even bv m^ 

 specially interested in trade or commerce? * 



We learn that a deputation from the Ho- 



tural Society of London, consisting of D. p^* 



Secretary, Sir Wm. Hooker, Mr. BestV;^i? 



WentworthDilke having been fornS'SJ 

 purpose of visiting the French Horticultural pi 

 bition, it was received last Friday by \f 

 Decaisne and Morel, Vice-Presidents • \r 1 • 

 the Secretary ; M. Loyre, the architect 7*< 



gardens ; and the garden staff. 



tect of t^ 



deputation was to dine with the Committee di 

 Exhibition. We hear that the exhibition h a Z 

 one, quite as good as a permanent one can weff 

 Details upon this subject are in preparation 5 

 will appear as soon as we receive them. 



.VEGETABLE PATHOLOGY.-No. LXXiX. 

 331. Perianthomanu (Multiplication of Br*m 

 Sepals, Ac.)— In adopting the nomenclature of hT2 

 avoid the introduction of needless terms, IamoUbd 

 to take the word perianth, not only as iudicatiJZ! 

 below the petals, according to the usage of $m 

 authors, but in the more legitimate sense alio * 

 applied to those cases in which the petals and septli 

 are physiologically one. All these organs, then, If 

 whatever name they are known, are subject toiW 

 mal multiplication; the sepals, however, to lessexta. 

 than the others. I am not speaking of those 

 which the bractes simply become foliaceous or assume ik 

 colours of the corolla or other vivid tints, became tkb 

 may take place normally, but of such cases as thai pw. 

 sented by the variety of Carnation known by the 

 of Wheat-ear Carnation. The bractes which subta. 

 the calyx are here multiplied and disposed symmt: 

 cally round it, so as to present a general resemblance H 

 a Wheat-ear. The calyx is generally abor e, ta 

 whether the plant ever bears seeds when in this e» 

 dition I am unable to say. The variety is not camN 

 in gardens, and I have had no opportunity of examine 

 it accurately. This, however, has not been the cut 

 with the variety of Sweet William alluded to above, i 

 which I have a plant in my own garden, and of wind 

 a figure is subjoined. The structure is entirely horn- 

 logous with that of the Wheat-ear Pink; there is lb 

 same repetition of the bractes, and the same more v 

 less imperfect fruit succeeding them. In both insUM* 

 the bractes undergo no change of tint. In the Sweet 



William, at least, there is an •£»* toj^ 



fruit, which undergoes some curious oi« . . j 



which 1 shall have occasion to allude in ^J^ 

 have not myself seen seed, but Re s»J from * 

 never observed " any impediment to acci g ^ 

 affection to the reproduction of the S P e— g ^ 

 however, is scarcely consistent with W J|" fl^* 

 book, and must be taken with some latitua. h 



indeed, no reason why fruit should not occa ^ 

 produced, though the natural tendencyo , 



plication is to cause the other nee ewwj ^ ^ 

 degenerate or to suppress them altogeu* _ ^ 

 conceivable that such productions *houJa r ^ ^^ 

 good soil for their maintenance ; our, i , ■ ^ t ^0 

 is afforded in proof that extreme ««J*£ Uo0 thou* 

 i,.o u„a .„,„»,;„<, in do with their prodoeuo"f 



has had anything to do wi 







ma 



simih 



y teVd'V ^erve them *W°*£T** 



.Jilar affection often takes place inlj^ rf ^ 



effect is to produce leafy branches i« ^^ 



without any especial arrangement t uhW» j^ ^ 



..„i»*: f tu*. covpi-fll leaves. »utu « ^on p" 



relation of the several leav 



relation 01 me sevcia. •*-»-— * cow 1 """ '.j* 



produced only in a single ^^^und*' f 

 and is certainly not always due to upe ^ 

 ness of soil, as I can myself testify . M {^ 



1** 



which have come before me. The P^J in ,, by-, 

 varieties can only be ™™i°l** \ ee te,« ?*?£ 



\arieueo van «"v " . a^Med aeeuoj'- i jj» 



of cuttings from the parte anecteu ^ 



would very probably ) lfcId h ^ t S colours of f J* 

 variolated Primrose, in winch tUe «g*J^ 



are partially assumed by he JU-F» .hi* *£ 

 a good example of sepalomania, [d gr 



instances occur. The variety of ^J. ^^ 

 n Ourd Chron. 1854, p. 



660) 



is 



vfry 



