The Royal Botanic Gardoi at Kew. 183 



weather, the young queens pass into the nymph state, the instinctive aversion 

 of the old queen is excited, and slaughter ensues. 



" The idea," continues Mr. Wighton, " that the queen goes abroad in 

 search of drones is hardly sufficiently estabhshed to warrant the conclusion 

 derived from it by some, viz. that it is the immediate cause of swarming." 

 That the young queen does go abroad in search of the males is a fact as well 

 established as any other in the natural history of the insect ; but that this 

 should be the immediate cause of swarming is a notion I never before heard 

 broached, and could never be entertained by any one who had pretensions to 

 bee knowledge ; in fact, it is not worthy of the words Mr. Wighton and I 

 spend on it. 



Hoping that these remarks maybe satisfactory to your correspondent, lam. 

 Sir, &c. — W. Dunbar. Lockcrby, Dec. 12. 1839. 



Art. V. The Royal Botanic Garden at Kew. 



It has been currently reported, and we believe on good authority, that 

 government has had an intention to disperse the collection of plants in the 

 Royal Botanic Garden at Kew, and employ the ground for raising culinary 

 vegetables, and the houses for forcing. The plants, we are informed, were in 

 part offered to the Horticultural Society ; and, in part, to the Royal Botanic 

 Society of the Inner Circle, Regent's Park ; and to the Society attempting to 

 be established at Reading, on the foundation of the collection at White Knights. 

 The conditions proposed to the Horticultural Society were, that they should 

 open their gardens to the public twice a week ; what were proposed to the 

 other societies we have not heard. 



Though the intentions of government have, we believe, been defeated for 

 the present, chiefly through the exertions of some influential members of the 

 Horticultural Society, and more especially its president ; yet we cannot help 

 deeply regretting that it should ever have been made. We regret it, first, 

 because the collection is one of the most extensive and rich in fine specimens 

 which exists in Europe, having been gradually accumulated through a long 

 series of years, and at a very considerable expense to the country; secondly, 

 because we consider it unjust towards the people, who contribute an annual 

 sum for its support ; or say for the support of the splendour of the crown, 

 of which splendour the Botanic Garden at Kew is as much entitled to be 

 considered a part, as the collections of pictures, statues, and books, in any of the 

 palaces ; thirdly, because in this country, where fashion is everything, we think 

 it of great importance to all classes that the fashion of having fine gardens and 

 rich collections of plants should be set by royalty, in order that it may prevail 

 among the nobility and gentry ; and, fourthly, that such an act will render us 

 still more ridiculous than we are in the eyes of our Continental neighbours, 

 who laugh at our wealth and ostentation in some things, and our meanness 

 and want of taste in others. Whether the collection be distributed among 

 the gardens mentioned, or given to any one of them, what security is there for 

 its existence for any length of time ? Even the Horticultural Society, flourishing 

 as it is at present, might become bankrupt in a year or two ; and, as to the 

 other societies or gardens, they cannot even pretend to be established. The 

 collection might almost as well be sold in lots, to whoever chose to become 

 purchasers. There might be some show of excuse for dispersing these plants, 

 if a rigid economy were shown in other state establishments ; but, while we 

 have three persons doing what might very easily be done by one, as in the 

 Commission of Woods and Forests, and a number of ambassadors at the 

 different petty states of Europe, the business done by whom would be equally 

 well performed by the consuls at the same states, not to mention other similar 

 cases, we cannot evince the slightest sympathy with the proposition to save 

 two or three thousands a year, by doing away with one of the most interesting 



