MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



99 



issued annually as an apjDendix to tlie " Kew Bulle- 

 tin." 



18. The Stationery Office takes a vote of £170 for ilie 

 purchase of books for the Kew Library. Up to 1890 it 

 supplied them on reqiiisition. Scarce books, however, 

 have to be hunted for in booksellers' catalogues. They 

 require i^rompt application, and the Stationery Office 

 generally failed to secure them in time. \Vheu pro- 

 cured they also defaced them with an unsightly stamp. 

 They further insisted on damaged or mutilated copies 

 being accepted if procurable at a cheap rate. After 

 considerable discussion it was eventually arranged that 

 Kew should buy its own books through a bookseller, 

 accounting for the expenditure to an amount not ex- 

 ceeding the sum voted for the purpose. Amongst other 

 advantages this allows of books being inspected before 

 their purchase is tina.hy decided on. Modern Ijooks, the 

 titles of which are attractive, often prove not worth 

 purchasing. Copies of old books aie never iwrchased 

 if, on inspection, they prove imperfect. 



The peculiar character of taxonomic science requires 

 that a librarv such as that of Kew should possess every 

 book in which a new species is described. It is there- 

 fore necessary to have a large series of periodicals. 

 Keeping these up is a task of no small difficulty, espe- 

 oially with very limited means. The method may be 

 summarised as follows : — 



(i.) A considerable number of foreign, colonial, 

 Indian, and home societies are desirous that such a 

 librarv as that of Kew should possess a complete set 

 of their publications. The scientific bodies of the 

 United States are especially generous m this respect. 

 Kew is under particirlar obligations to Professor 

 Britton of Columbia College, for taking an immense 

 amount' of trouble to got its sets and periodicals made 

 complete. 



(ii.) The Director is usually a member of various 

 foreign scientific societies, and as such receives their 

 pubHcations. These go to the library. 



(iii.) A certain number are obtained in exchange for 

 the "Kew Bulletin." 



(iv ) Others are received by the Bentham Trustees in 

 exchange for the " Icones Plantarum," and these are 

 present°ed by them to the library. 



(v.) The remainder, not obtainable through any of 

 these channels, are purchased. 



ADDENDA. 



The two following documents alluded to in thi fore- 

 gomg reply have been supplied by the PubUc Record 

 Office with the sanction of H.M. Treasury, and H.M. 

 Office of Works respectively. 



ADDEXDTJii A.— Letter from the Commissioners of 

 Woods and Forests (Lord Duncannon, Sir B. C. Stephen- 

 son, and ilr. A. Milne) to the Lords Commissioners of 

 H.M. Treasury. 



[Copy.] 

 Office of Woods, &c., 24th April, 1839. 



My Lords,— We received with Mr. Spearman's letter, 

 dated 28th April, 1838, the report of a Committee ap- 

 pointed by your Lordships to enquire into the manage- 

 ment, superintendence, and expenditure of the several 

 Royal Gardens, together with the report of Dr. Lindley 

 and other accompanying papers, and being desired by 

 your Lordships to consider the various suggestions of the 

 Committee, and to communicate with your Lordships our 

 opinion, so far as these suggestions concern matters con- 

 nected with this Department, we now beg leave to bring 

 under your Lordships' attention so much of the report of 

 the Committee as relates to the Royal Botanic Garden 

 at Kew, and the separate report of Dr. Lindley on that 

 garden. 



It appears from Dr. Lindley's report that the Royal 

 Botanic Garden occupies about fifteen acres, that it con- 

 tains many fine exotic trees and shrubs, a small collec- 

 tion of herbaceous plants, numerous specimens of grasses, 

 ten different stoves, and greenhouses built at different 

 times as occasions required, and crowded together with- 

 out plan or arrangement, all heated by different fires, 

 producing a quantity of soot, from which great inconve- 

 nience is experienced ; that these houses contain a great 

 variety of rare and valuable truijical plants, in excellent 

 health, clean, and well attended to ; that besides the 

 houses above mentioned there is in the pleasure grounds 

 a fine Old Orangery filled with orange trees and other 

 plants of great size and value, and also a new archi- 

 tectural greenhouse, the building of which had 



3499. 



but lately been completed; and that, as regards the cul- 

 tivation of tlic whole, it dues credit to those who have 

 had the charge of the garden, considering the crowded 

 6tate of the houses, and the inadequate funds allowed 

 for its support. 



From these last-mentioned causes, and the present very 

 insirilicient extent of the garden as a national institution 

 for the encouragement and extension of botanical science, 

 it does not now appear to fulfil the objects for which it 

 was establisiied ; neither does it seem to be useful as a 

 private Royal garden, being only resorted to for supphes 

 of flowers and plants on occasions of great entertainments 

 at the Royal Palaces. 



Of late years the means of maintaining this garden 

 api^oar to have been considerably reduced, one of two 

 collectors sent abroad m 1814 for collecting seeds and 

 plants and communicating with similar establishments in 

 other countries, having been recalled in 1823, and the 

 other in 1830. Up to the latter period a portion of the 

 expenses is stated to have been defrayed by issues of 

 money under the immediate authority of your Lord- 

 ships' Board, but morerecently we believe that the whole 

 expense of managing and cultivating the garden has been 

 chargeable in the Lord Steward's Department, upon 

 which it has been a heavy burden without anj- adequate 

 return, and with which establishment the garden in its 

 present state appears to have little or no connection. 



The average amount of that charge paid by the Lord 

 Steward is stated to have been about £2,500, and there 

 has been the additional expense in this Department of 

 keeping up the building, green and hothouses, walls, 

 &c., amounting on an average to from £1,000 to £1,200 

 a year, exclusive of the cost of the new greenhouse, which 

 has amounted to about £5,300. 



It is stated both by the Committee and in the report 

 of Dr. Lindley that it is useless to maintain this garden 

 in its present state, being from its local situation unavail- 

 able as a private Royal pleasure garden, and not adapted 

 in its extent, establishment, or arrangement for a 

 national institution, and it is added that it does not 

 seem to be reasonable that the present expense, much 

 less any additional charge, should be borne by the 

 Civil List. 



To render the establishment effective as a botanic 

 garden of science, instruction and exhibition, and supply 

 for useful purf)oses (for which the present garden would 

 form a most valuable foundation), it is reported by Dr. 

 Lindley that it siiould be enlarged by at least thirty 

 acres, which could readily be added out of the adjoining 

 grounds of Kew, and that the original outlay in the for- 

 mation of the establishment upon an adequate scale 

 would not at the utmost exceed £20,000, and that £4,000 

 a year would be quite sufficient for the future maintenance 

 of such an estabHshment, exclusive of repairs, additions, 

 and alterations to the walls and buildings. 



If your Lordships shall be of opinion that this estab- 

 lishment ought to be maintained, and placed upon a 

 footing calculated to promote botanical science in this 

 country, it will be necessary that provision be made by 

 Parliament for the cost to be incurred in the first in- 

 stance, and if Parliament shall be pleased to grant the 

 necessary funds for the purpose, in addition to the cur- 

 rent annual expenditure, the outlay of the £20,000 for the 

 new works might be extended over a period of three or 

 four years. 



On the subject of the transfer of the garden to this 

 department, as suggested in the report of the Committee, 

 we beg leave to state to your Lordships that in the execu-^ 

 tion of the necessary works for the enlargement of the 

 garden, and in the supervision of the annual expenditure 

 for its future maintenance, the services of this establish- 

 ment may be available ; but your Lordships will be aware 

 that in its scientific management, and in adapting it to 

 useful purposes, neither tlus Board nor its officers can 

 render any efficient assistance, and that such manage- 

 m-ent and the control of the whole establishment will be 

 most properly vested in trustees, to be named by Her 

 Majesty, and to consist of persons holding high 'offices 

 in the State and others at the head of institutions in the 

 Metropolis for education and science, as suggested in the 

 report of the Committee. 



We are, my Lcrd.l, 

 Your Lordships' very humble servants, 



(Signed) Dr^cAxxox, 



B. C. Stkphenson, 



A. irTLirfi. 



,S'(/- ]V. T. 



Thisdton- 



Dyer, 



K.C.M.G., 

 F.R.S. 



29 Nov. 1900. 



The Right Hon. 



The Lords ilJommissioners 

 of Her Majesty's Treasury. 



n2 



