370 Kew Botanic Garden, 



b}' land or water, renders it impossible to select a better site in the vicinity of 

 the metropolis. 



To make it effective, it should be enlarged by the increase of at least 30 

 acres from the pleasure-grounds of Kew. Considerable additions should be 

 made to the houses ; every thing should be systematically arranged and named j 

 there should be distinct departments, both in the open air, and in houses, for 

 medicinal, economical, and agricultural plants ; nurseries would be required 

 for the propagation of plants for Government exportation, or for public pur- 

 poses ; gratuitous lectures should be given upon botany in a popular form, 

 but not as a regular academical course ; the most beautiful specimens of the 

 vegetable kingdom should be carefully preserved for exhibition ; in short, the 

 Garden should be perfectly adapted to the three branches of instruction, ex- 

 hibition, and supply. 



There is no sort of difficulty in effecting all this, and more, except the 

 cost. To render it perfectly effective, would certainly not cost altogether at 

 the utmost above 20,000/. ; 4,000/. a year would certainly pay for the main- 

 tenance afterwards, exclusive of repairs, and towards this sum it is not at all 

 improbable that the Apothecaries' Society might be disposed to contribute, pro- 

 vided such an arrangement were made as would satisfy them that the objects 

 of their garden at Chelsea, in that case to be abandoned, would be fulfilled. 



It is inconceivable that Parliament would refuse the money for this pur- 

 pose if the Garden were really remodelled with a view to such objects as those 

 just described. 



The only difficulty that is anticipated in the working of such an establish- 

 ment is, the manner of distributing the plants through the country, and this is 

 certainl}' an embarrassing subject. 



There now exists so great an eagerness to procure new and beautiful plants, 

 that to give the public any thing like a right to ask for duplicates from Kew, 

 would be to make a signal for a general scramble, which might end in the 

 destruction of all that is valuable in the establishment ; or if the officer in 

 charge of the Garden had firmness enough to resist powerful applications on 

 the one hand, and equally powerful demands upon the other, he would pro- 

 bably find the charge so disagreeable as to be disgusted with it, or he would 

 be driven to make an unwilling compromise between his duty and the difficul- 

 ties of his position. 



At the same time, nothing can justify the present system in a public garden. 



It has been proposed to sell the duplicate plants : so long as the Garden 

 remains in the Lord Steward's department, it is impossible to sanction such 

 a measure, which would be incompatible with the dignity of the Crown ; but 

 if the Garden is placed under the Commissioners of Her Majesty's Woods, 

 &c., the objection is not only removed, but the plan becomes, upon the whole, 

 the least objectionable of any, and in that case such a system as the following 

 might be adopted : — 



1. To secure at least two specimens for the garden, 



2. To supply Her Majesty's gardens. 



3. To sell by auction annually all disposable duplicates. It is of course 

 impossible to say what income would be derived from this, but the value of 

 the plants would much depend upon the opinion the public might entertain of 

 the chief officer of the garden, whose business it would be to determine the 

 names of the plants to be sold. 



4. To propagate nothing except what is wanted for Government purposes, 

 and so far as the raising new plants from seeds can be called propagation. 



In addition to this, there should be vested in the chief officer of the Garden 

 a power of making exchanges with private individuals in this country at any 

 time, and also with foreign gardens, after the wants of the British public are 

 satisfied. 



If Parliament were to grant a sum for rendering Kew a great national gar- 

 den. Her Majesty's Commissioners of Woods, &c., would be relieved from a 



