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DEPARTMENTAL COMMITTEE ON BOTANICAL WORK : 



Sir W. T. Chief Clerk, A. G. Howell. 



Thiselton- 

 Dyer, 



K.C.M.G., 

 F.R.S. 



29 Nov. 1900. 



Entomologist, H. M. Lefroy, B.A. 



Consulting Chemists, Prof. J. B. Harrison, M.A. F.I.C., 

 F.C.S. ; Prof. J. P. d'Albuquerque, M.A., F.I.G., 

 F.C.S. 



During the period tJiat Sir Joseph Banks virtually 

 acted as director of the scientific operations of Kew, 

 the flora of the Southern hemisphere was assiduously 

 explored both by Sir Joseph Banks himself and by 

 collectors sent out from Kew. It seems clear, however, 

 from the following correspondence, that in some cases 

 at any rate the expenses of the collector were paid out 

 of public funds. 



W. T. AixoN, Esq., to The Right Hon'ble Sir Joseph 

 Banks, Bart., K.B., etc., etc. 



Sir,— On all subjects the most interesting to the Royal 

 Collection at Kew you have been pleased to allow me 

 to be directed by your greater experience, I therefore 

 trouble you with this letter. 



I beg I may refer to your recollection that previously 

 to the illness of the King it was His Majesty's pleasure 

 to direct that botanical collectors were to be prepared 

 and sent abroad for the express object of procuring fresh 

 and choice supplies of seeds, roots, and plants, become 

 necessary to be added to keep up the Royal Collection 

 of Kew, made superior to other gardens in Eingland by 

 means of the frequent importations of the rarer exotics ; 

 in all ca9es_ of this kind the subject has been referred 

 by His Majesty's command for your decision to fix upon 

 and name those countries most proper for botanists"^ to 

 explore. 



The improved state of science in England, the iqcreas- 

 ing desire of novelty in botanical pursuits, the great 

 •deterioration and the loss of various plants, that no 

 ordinary means or care could obviate, and withal the 

 repose of botanists awaiting orders of appointment 

 .abroad, together most anxiously beseech your kind view 

 of this subject. I therefore entreat your mediation and 

 support of the necessary and good cause of sending 

 botaiiic<:.l collectors to foreign parts in search of supplies. 



On some occasions you have named Southern Africa, 



America, and the promising lands of Kew Holland, as 



-ample fields lor a productive harvest. You have also 



visited these countries, and consequently are the best 



judge of tlie particular tracts proper for research. 



I have in view men of sound principles and invaluab Le 



zeal for the service, having the best requisites of know- 

 ledge, and desire to offer themselves as collectors, and 

 who will perform this duty in any part of the world. 

 Under circumstances so favourable, and with it the most 

 ■sui^reme blessing of general peace, I think the subject 

 and the season to submit it to Royal approbation 

 auspicious. I therefore humbly beg yOu will confer 

 upon me the kindness of your directions to govern my 

 proceeding with this business in the wav vnu approve, 

 so that I may not fail in duty to the Royal Gardens at 

 Kew when the most favourable opportunity occurs to 

 lay this subject before His Royal Hisrhness the Prince 

 Regent for His Royal Highness's most gracious com- 

 mands. 



I have the honour to be, sir, etc., etc., etc., 



(Signed) W. T. Aiton. 



Boyal Gardens, Kew, May 29th, 1814. 



To the Right Hon'ble Sir Joseph Banks, Bart, K.B., 

 etc., etc. 



The Right Hon'ble Sir Joseph Baxks, Bart., K.B., etc.. 

 etc., to W. T. AiTON, Esq. 



Soho Square. June 7th, 1814. 



My dear Sir, — ^Among the innumerable indulgencies 

 I have for a long time enjoyed, derived from the gracious 

 kindness of our beloved and afflicted Monarch, the con- 

 nection I have been permitted to form with the Royal 

 Gardens at Kew is among those most grateful to my 

 feelings, and I beg you to be assured that as long as I 

 shall be permitted to continue it I shall cherish and 

 improve it to the best of my power. 



Among the other indulgencies allowed to me on that 

 fie:id, I was permitted, as you. sir, know, to draw in- 

 structions for those persons whom you from ti-ne to 



time recommended as properly qualified to travel as 

 collectors for the Royal Botanic Gardens. I think I 

 may venture to affirm that until that arrangement was 

 interrupted by the almost impossibilitv of sending home 

 living plants in ships liable to the detention of waiting 

 for convoy, His Majesty s Gardens at Kew stood un- 

 rivalled in the whole of Europe for the extent of its 

 collections as well as for the beauty and interest of 

 the plants it consisted of. 



The arrival of the definite treaty with France, and 

 the certainty that before any collection can be readv 

 to be sent home, ships will sail as they were used to do 

 wiihout being subjected to any uncertain delays, maLes 

 me anxious to see the establishment of foreign collectors 

 resumed, and the more so as the Emperor of Germany, 

 who has formerly freighted ships at an immense ex- 

 pense, and sent well-educated botanists to collect for 

 his garden at Sehoeenbrun (the only rival to Kew that 

 I have any fear about), will no doubt' resume the business 

 of improving it. 



" The climate best suited for our collectors is, as you 

 know, the .southern temperate zone, and in that part 

 of the world no places are so productive as the Cape of 

 Good Hope and New South Wales : if His Royal 

 Highness the Prince Regent should permit you to en- 

 gage two collectors these are the places I should wish 

 them to be sent to. The plants of both these countries 

 are beautiful in the extreme, and are easily managed, 

 as they suit the conservatory and have no occasion for 

 the unnatural heat required by the intertropical vege- 

 table. I should wish also to have a collector sent to 

 Buenos Ayres, but at present, and till Spain has re- 

 possessed herself of her refractory Colonies, this cannot 

 be thought of. 



" Should you be allowed to send to the Cape of Good 

 Hope and to New South Wales, I have no doubt of 

 being able to give such instructions to the governors of 

 these countries as will enable His Majesty's collectors 

 to visit a.t a very reasonable expense countries hitherto 

 unexplored, and they will add to the royal collection 

 riches beyond the most sanguine expectations of those 

 who have had less experience in the produce of those 

 countries than has fallen to my lot. i 



" I am, my dear sir, with real esteem and regard, 

 your most faithful and most obedient servant, 



" (Signed) Joseph Banks." 

 To W. T. Aiton, Esq., Royal Gardens, Kew. 



■' Teeasitky to the Right Honourable Sir Joseph 

 Banks, Bart., K.B., etc., etc. 



Treasury Chambers, September 13, 1814. 

 "Sir, 



" Having laid before the Lords Commissioners of 

 His Majesty's Treasury the communication which you 

 were so good as to make to me, by the desire of thp 

 Earl of Liverpool, upon the subject of the appointment, 

 of fit and proper persons to proceed to the Cape of 

 Good Hope and elsewhere, for the purpose of collecting 

 rare and curiotis plants for His Majesty's Botanic 

 Garden at Kew, I have received their Lordships' com- 

 mands to express to you their entire concurrence in the 

 suggestions contained in that communication, and their 

 approbation of the persons recommended by you for this 

 service, and that their Lordships will nominate them 

 thereto accordingly, and that their Lordships feel much 

 gratified by, and will most readily adopt your offer of 

 auditing the accounts sent home by the collectors, and 

 of certifying them to the Treasury, when sent home 

 for their Lordships' approbation. And I am further to 

 acquaint you that their Lordships wUl from time to 

 time issue to Mr. Aiton, the Superintendent of His 

 Majesty's Botanic Garden at Kew, such sums as you 

 may recommend for this service, for the application of 

 which Mr. Aiton will be accountable only to their 

 Lordships' Board. And that with a view to provide for 

 such outfit of the persons appointed en this service as 

 may be necessary, their Lordships have directed Mr. 

 Spur of this office to issue to Mr. Aiton the sum of £200 

 upon his application for the same. 



" And my Lords have further commanded me to re- 

 quest that you will have the goodness to give either 

 immediately from yourself or through Mr. Aiton, as 

 you may deem most expedient, such instructions to the 

 collectors for their governance and conduct in the dis- 

 charge of their duties as may appear to you best cal- 

 culated to ensure a due and faithful execution of the 



