Kew Botanic Garden. 365 



Art. IV. Botanical Garden (Kerv). 



COPY of the Report made to the Committee appointed by the Lords of 

 the Treasury in January, 1838, to enquire into the Management, &c., of the 

 Royal Gardens, by Dr, Lmdlet/, Professor of Botany, who, at the request 

 of the Committee, made an actual Survey of the Botanical Garden at 

 Xew, in conjunction with Messrs. Paxton and Wilson, two practical Gar- 

 deners, in the Month of February, 1838. Printed by Order of the House 

 of Commons in May, 1840. 



This garden is situated on the south side of Kew Green, bounded partly 

 by the walls of the royal forcing and kitchen garden, and partly by what is 

 called the pleasure-ground of Kew Palace. It is reported in the official 

 returns to occupy 15 acres, of which a part is arboretum, and the remainder 

 filled by stoves and green-houses, borders of herbaceous plants, spaces left for 

 the arrangement of green-house plants in the open air in summer, offices, 

 yards, &c. 



The arboretum contains many very fine specimens of hardy exotic trees 

 and shrubs ; but the collection is not very extensive, and the plants are too 

 much crowded ; they are mostly marked with labels, numbered} and referring 

 to a private catalogue in the garden. 



The collection of herbaceous plants appeared to be inconsiderable, A 

 certain number were marked with their names written on painted sticks ; 

 others were unnamed ; no systematical arrangement was observable, with the 

 exception of grasses, of which there is an extensive collection named. 



The stoves and green-houses have been built, with two exceptions, in the 

 neighbourhood of each other, in an irregular manner, and, apparently, from 

 time to time, as occasion arose for successive additions. Some of them are 

 old, but in general they are in pretty good repair. They may be described as 

 follows : — 



1. A palm stove, 60 ft. long, containing, among other things, some fine 

 old palm trees planted in the ground. 



2. A stove, 30 ft. long, filled with a miscellaneous collection of stove 

 plants. 



3. A stove, 60 ft, long, with two small tanks for water plants, occupied 

 by a miscellaneous assemblage of stove plants. 



4. A small span green-house, 40 ft. long, with a miscellaneous collection 

 of small New Holland and Cape plants. 



5. A dry stove, 40 ft, long, in two compartments, filled with succulent 

 plants. 



6. A green-house, 60 ft. long, chiefly filled with fine specimens of Cape of 

 Good Hope and New Holland plants, among which are some noble banksias, 



7. A double propagating pit and hospital, 33 ft. long, with cuttings under 

 bell-glasses and sick plants in one division ; ferns, orchidaceous plants, and 

 some other valuable specimens in the other. 



8. A green-house, 30 ft. long, containing small Cape of Good Hope 

 and New Holland plants, 



9. A "Botany J3ay" house, 110ft. long, crowded with magnificent spe- 

 cimens of New Holland and other plants, especially the former. 



10. An old stove, reported to be the first house erected in the garden, 

 110 ft, long, in three divisions ; one containing noble specimens of succulent 

 and other plants ; the second, a stately Zamia pungens, palms, &c. ; and the 

 third, a miscellaneous set of green-house plants, together with a few forced 

 flowers for nosegays. 



Many of those houses have brick pits attached to them on the outside, and 

 there is a damp pit for raising seedlings in. All the houses are heated by 

 separate fires, and great inconvenience appears to result from the soot pro- 

 duced by so many chimneys. 



The first thing to remark upon the specimens in the houses just described 



