THE HISTORY OF AITON's ' HORTUS KEWENSIS ' 13 



interlineations by Dryander show that the MS. passed through 

 his hands, and there are numerous additions as to the introducers 

 of certain plants in the hand of W. T. Alton. It appears to be 

 an accidental survival from the destruction of W. T. Alton's MSS. 

 and correspondence, which, as will be seen later, took place in 1849. 

 The date at which occurred the hitch referred to in the fore- 

 going letters may be ascertained from a volume of notes concerning 

 ed. 2 of the Hortus, mostly in the hand of Eichard Cunningham, 

 which was received at Kew with the volume just noticed. It is 

 clear, however, that W. T. Alton's share in the preparation of 

 this edition was much greater than has been supposed. In the 

 " Eecord-Book " of the Gardens for 1793-1809, preserved in 

 the Kew Herbarium (pp. 295-399) is a series of additions and 

 corrections to the first edition in his hand which show a very 

 considerable knowledge both of plants and of botanical literature : 

 these w^ere evidently prepared for the use of Cunningham, who 

 has occasionally added notes on identifications. 



The * Epitome ' op the Hortus Kewensis. 



It may be well to add to this history of the Hortus Kewensis 

 some account of the Eintome (1814) to which the " account of 

 the proofs and revises received from Mr. Taylor" on pp. 187-9 of 

 the volume of notes just mentioned refers, and which seems to 

 have been entirely the work of Eichard Cunningham. The proofs 

 were delivered at short and regular intervals until Jan. 7, 1813, 

 when sheet 2 K (pp. 249-256) was received. This carried the 

 Eintome to the end of vol. iv. of the Hortus ; the following sheet 

 was not received until Sept. 9, the intermission being accounted 

 for by the delay in the production of vol. v. 



With regard to the Epitome, I do not find it anywhere noticed 

 that there are two editions — issued in the same year, but differing 

 in important particulars. The first contains 330 pages, besides 

 an Index Generum, an Index Synonymorum, an English index, 

 and 14 pages of addenda, none of which are paged. The infor- 

 mation as to each plant is given in five columns, headed respec- 

 tively "Linnaean Name," "English Name," "Native Soil," "Cult." 

 {i. e. date of introduction), and "Time of Flowering." The second 

 corresponds with this in the above details, but the number of 

 columns is six ; between the second and third of the preceding is 

 interpolated one headed "figure," which is thus explained in the 

 paragraph added in this issue to the " explanation of the abbre- 

 viations used in this work " : — 



" The third column contains references to figures ; those in 

 Italics distinguish the works in which the plants are published 

 under the same name as in Hortus Kewensis ; but such as are 

 printed in Eoman letters denote that the plants so quoted will be 

 found under other names in the several books to which they are 

 referred." 



Two explanations are added — " in p. 7. Most part of the 

 year" and " i, ii, iii, iv. January, February, March, April." 

 These numerals are in the second edition substituted for the 



