January 20, 1892.] 



Garden and Forest. 



27 



the garden, and in his remarks at p. 535 of our volume for 

 that year it is recorded tliat persons, provided tliey did 

 not touch tlie plants, were permitted to wall^ tlirougli the 

 grounds without attendance ! that tliere had been a large in- 

 crease of "respectable company," and that neither plants nor 

 flowers had been injured by the visitors. 



Other details are given as to the changes in progress, and 

 especially as to the unrivaled collection of Proteacese, a group 

 of plants, by the way, better represented fifty years ago than 

 now. The changes effected by Sir W. Hooker were again ad- 

 verted to at p. 123 of our volume for 1842, where it is recorded 

 that "the well-directed energy of Sir \V. Hooker, assisted by 

 a judicious liberality on the part of the Commissioners of 

 Woods and Forests, will speedily place Kevv where it ought 

 to be, and once was — at the head of the botanical establish- 

 ments of Europe." 



It is not our intention on this occasion to advert in detail to 

 tlie further progress of Kew, its great extension, the gradual 

 improvements in general cultivation, and in all departments, 

 under the directioii of Sir William and of Sir Joseph Hooker, 

 and latterly of Mr. Thiselton-Dyer; the new houses con- 

 structed, the museums built, the herbaria and libraries formed, 

 the laboratory and picture-gallery established ; nor need we do 

 more in passing than allude to the extraordinary literary and 

 scientific activity evinced in the numerous suljstantial volumes 

 that have emanated from Kew. The Colonial Floras, for in- 

 stance, were projected by Sir William Hooker. Some are 

 completed, others, like the tropical and extra-tropical African 

 floras, will, we trust, speedily be resumed ; while the unri- 

 valed experience and the undaunted energy of Sir Joseph 

 Hooker have brought the Flora of British India nearly to com- 

 pletion. 



To the general public Kew is a pleasure-garden merely. It 

 is that, of course ; but it is far more. It is, and has been for 

 half a century, what Lindley wished it to be, the centre of 

 botanical activity — activity not only in purely scientific botany, 

 but in garden-botany in particular. It has been a main agency 

 in the collection and diffusion of knowledge of all kinds relat- 

 ing to botany, and has ensured the cultivation and dispersal of 

 economic plants of all kinds in our colonies. We have often 

 had occasion to record, with patriotic pride, the great things 

 for humanity which have been effected through the medium 

 of Kew. Commercial men and practical statesmen are not 

 very likely to feel much enthusiasm about botany as a science 

 — they look upon it, if at all, as a harmless pastime ; but when 

 they see — as they may at Kew — what it is capable of and what 

 it has done for the benefit of mankind, they naturally look 

 upon the garden as an institution worthy of their support. 

 The cultivation of Cinchona, Tea, India-rubber, Liberian Cof- 

 fee, represents only a few of the industries which have been 

 established and fostered in India and our colonics chiefly 

 through the agency of Kew. 



All that has been done at Kew in the way of gardening, sys- 

 tematic study, physiology or economic botany, has been done 

 in accordance with the letter and the spirit of the recommen- 

 dations made by Lindley, l)ut modified and extended by suc- 

 cessive directors ; and the latest advances — that of federating 

 the several colonial botanic gardens, and that of establishing 

 botanical departments in the several presidencies of India and 

 in the colonies — are in strict accordance with the general plan. 

 Kew has thus long been the centre of botanical energy in 

 almost all departments. Its steady progress and its present 

 condition are matters which excite the admiration of the most 

 competent judges. We have lately had an illustration of this 

 in the g-lowing testimony as to the condition of and the work at 

 Kew afforded to us in conversation with the directors of two of 

 the most important gardens in the world — that of Paris and the 

 Harvard Arlioretum. 



In some points Kew still needs extension and improvement. 

 The subject of the diseases of plants, for instance, is vast 

 enough and important enough to demand a separate staff of 

 microscopists and entomologists with a small space set apart 

 as an experimental area. The laboratory and library would 

 be invaluable adjvmcts to such a department. Systematic and 

 comparative study of the minute anatomy of plants is also a 

 need of the times that might be largely supplied at Kew. 

 Anatomists would not only find there what they want in the 

 way of material, but they might also profit by imitating the 

 systematic orderly procedures and comparative methods of 

 those who devote themselves to herbarium botany, as it is 

 called. The co-operation of the two classes of workers is a 

 thing much to be desired, and we do not know where it could 

 be better carried out than at Kew. 



In the garden itself it is recognized that the cultivation, as 

 perfectly as circumstances will allow, of specimens illustrative 



of botanical structure and affinities, and of such as are of hor- 

 ticultural and economic importance, is preferable to the ac- 

 cumulation of so-called complete collections of specimens 

 which cannot be properly grown or displayed. Such plants 

 would be more appropriately housed in the herbarium, while 

 their portraits might find a place in the picture-galleries. For 

 strictly horticultural purposes, numerous and varied trials 

 should be made of new plants to ascertain their value ; and 

 not only of new plants, but also of some at least of the vast 

 number at present left unutilized by the gardener. Ordinary 

 bedding-stuff cannot, of course, be dispensed with in a public 

 garden ; but we do not want to see at Kew what we can see 

 in any of the parks or in the back-garden of any suburban 

 villa residence. What we see at Kew should be — and to a 

 large extent it already is — of educational value as well as 

 agreeable to the eye. 



One of the chief wants of Kew at present is suitable provi- 

 sion for plants requiring an intermediate temperature, be- 

 tween that of the stove and that of the ordinary greenhouse 

 or conservatory, one wherein specimens of many of the eco- 

 nomic plants of sub-tropical lands may be grown. Much of 

 this kind of material is already to be found in the smaller 

 houses, chiefly in the T-range ; but the plants, owing to the 

 smallness of the houses, and to their growth in pots of no 

 great size, do not convey to the minds of those seeking infor- 

 mation their true characteristics, and persons interested in 

 commerce go away from their inspection with feelings of dis- 

 appointment. 



I?y the completion of the temperate-house, the need we 

 have alluded to will be supplied, and space will be found for 

 most of the economic subjects whose cultivation in our col- 

 onies and crown-lands is meeting with so much attention. 

 The plants, being planted out in borders instead of cramped 

 and stunted in pots, will attain to fuller development and 

 show their characteristics more perfectly, and for these rea- 

 sons the enlargement of this house would be altogether an 

 appropriate commemoration of the jubilee year of Kew gar- 

 dens. 



New England Parks. 



THE ARNOLD ARBORETUM. 



THE Arboretum is not properly a park, according to the 

 commissioners, but as it is a part of the Boston Park 

 system, I take the liberty to treat it as a pleasure-ground 

 rather than as a school of dendrology, for, indeed, information 

 is here administered so delightfully that one is hardly con- 

 scious of being at school at all, and gives himself over to 

 the picturesque effects of this tree-garden, which yearly grows 

 more beautiful and attractive. 



Those dwellers in Boston who spend their summers in the 

 country and only drive about the environs of their city in 

 spring and fall, hardly get an idea of what the Arboretum is 

 at midsummer, when all its shrubs are in full leaf and blos- 

 som, its trees in their best and fullest foliage, and its ever- 

 greens showing their finest and most vigorous color, and at 

 any season when people visit it it would be well if they could be 

 made to realize that. this beautiful spot is still in its infancy, that 

 it is slowly growing to perfection, and that all that is unfinished 

 and unsightly about it now is but the deep-laid foundation of a 

 great and enduring monument to the generosity of the found- 

 ers of this wonderful garden, and to the learning and faithful- 

 ness and zeal of its Director, Professor Sargent. 



The Arnold Arboretum differs from other arboreta, in that it 

 is the largest space in the world devoted to dendrology as a 

 scientific study, and its collection of woody plants is more 

 complete and satisfactory here than in any of the great botanic 

 gardens of Europe, where the tree collections are simply ap- 

 pendages to their very remarkable assemblage of tropical and 

 native plants. Here 150 acres are devoted entirely to the culti- 

 vation of woody plants, that is, trees, vines and shrubs ; and 

 these are so carefully prepared and selected, and so skill- 

 fully cultivated by Mr. Dawson, the superintendent, that better 

 specimens can nowhere be shown of trees that have onlj' been 

 growing for less than a score of years, while the shrubberies 

 are in great perfection and variety, and the vines beautifully 

 luxuriant. 



Its scientific value is so well known and is so ably illustrated 

 in this very paper by writers far more able to cope with it on 

 that basis than I, that it is only necessary now to write of it as 

 a place which everybody in its neighborhood ought to be 

 familiar enough with to enjoy as it deserves, and to suggest 

 that when the early spring tempts the city-dweller to prolong 

 his drive that he should view with more than passing attendon 

 this unique and valuable possession of Boston, which he is 



