SUMMARY OF PREVIOUS ENQUIRIES. 



139 



"Report upon the present condition of the Bot-anical 

 Gardens at Kew, with recommendations for their future 

 administration," was drawn up by Dr. Lindley, and was 

 published as a Parliamentaiy paper in 1840. 



35. According to tliis report, the garden (including the 

 Arboretum) occupied 15 acres, and the collection of her- 

 baceous plants was stated to be then "inconsiderable." 

 The reporter states that " no attempt has been made till 

 lately to name the multitudes of raxe plants it compre- 

 hends, and thus t+j render it a place of public utility ; " 

 Beport, p 2. and, further, " "What names are to be found in the Garden 

 have been furnished by Mr. Smith, the foreman, and the 

 Director pir. Alton] "^does not hold ihimself answerable 

 for them. This was most particularly inquired' into, and 

 most distinctly avowed ; so that by far the most difficult 

 part of the duty of tlie principal officer— a duty on the 

 perfect execution of which the credit and utility of the 

 garden essentially depends—a duty which can be only 

 executed properly by a man of high scientific attainments, 

 aided by an extensive 'herbarium and a considerable 

 library ;' this most important duty is thrust tipon a fore- 

 man, paid small weekly wages for cultivating plants, who, 

 whatever his zeal andassiduity may be (and in this case 

 they have been such as to deserve the greatest praise), has 

 no .sufficient means of executing such an office. ' 



36. Dr. Lindley recommended that the Royal Gardens 

 at Kew should become public property, and be converted 

 into a National Botanical Garden, and brought into close 

 official relations with the Botanical Gardens of the 

 Colonies ; thait at least 30 acres should be added to the 

 gardens, and considerable additions 'be made to the 

 houses ; that everything should be systematically 

 arranged and named' ; that there should be nurseries for 

 the propagation of plants for Government exportation or 

 for public purposes ; that gratuitous lectures should be 

 given upon botany in a popular form, but not as a regular 

 academical course ; and that the most ibeautiful speci- 

 mens of the vegetable kingdom should be carefully pre- 

 served for exhibition. He further urged tlie necessity of 

 providing an extensive herbarium and a considerable 

 library. 



37. The Royal Gardens became public property in the 

 year 1840, and most of Dr. Lindle/s other recommenda- 

 tions were carried into effect by Sir William Hooker, who 

 was appointed Director of the "Gardens in that year. 



Dr. Hooker's 33. The Gardens at Kew were unprovided with any 

 mndum public herbarium or scientific library when Sir William 

 Appendix II. Hooker took charge of them. As Dr. Lindley's " Report " 

 shows, the naming of the plants was insufficiently at- 

 tended to by his predecessors. The new and rare plants 

 in the gardens, before Sir William Hooker's time, were 

 named partly by the use of a herbarium in the gardens, 

 which was broken up before their transference to_ the 

 nation, and partly by the aid of the Banksian Herbarium. 

 Di^ Hookers 39^ >;;jj. "William Hooker brought a large private her- 

 Mr.^^ ^" barium (which ^Ir. Bentham terms the richest in Britain) 

 Bentham's and library to Kew, and these were increased, at his 

 ippeSi. own expense, until his death in 1865. After his death, 

 Dr. Hooker's the herbarium and library were purchased by the Govern- 

 Statement jj^gj^^. ^^ ^ valuation, and have been added to the public 

 Appenmxn j,gj,|^,jj,jyj^ ^^ jjg^^ ^^j^i^^l^ ^^^ founded in 1854, when 

 Mr. Bentham presented his large private collection of 

 plants and botanical library to the nation. 



40. In regard to the work done at Kew at the present 

 time, the latter gentleman, who is one of our most eminent 

 botanists, and who has' been for many years well 

 acquainted with foreign botanical establishments, 

 Q. 72or. observes: — "1. For the close study of plants — the only 



sound foundation upon which the science of botany can 

 be usefully established — for their accurate determination 

 and practical classification, the requisites are : that the 

 herbarium should be as rich as possible, not only as to 

 the genera and species, but as to the variations of all 

 sorts and repetitions of the same form from different 

 localities and stations; that the herbarium should be a 

 single one, the geographical arra.ngement being kept in 

 subservience to the scientific classification, and without 

 any detached smaller herbaria, except such definite his- 

 torical ones as only require occasional reference like the 

 books of a library : that there should be good accommoda- 

 tion for the sorting of unnamed collections and fresh 

 arrivals, ample means for the dissection and examination 

 of specimens not only by the staff of the establishment, 

 but also by scientific botanists in general, who, under 

 special regulations, are allowed to work in the herbarium, 

 and store rooms for duplicates required for exchanges, 

 &c. ; that there should be in the same suite of rooms 

 as the herbarium a botanical librarv, as complete as pos- 

 sible, and a series of drawings of plants, also as complete 



as possible ; that the herbarium should be in close con- 

 nexion with the National collection of living plants ; and 

 that it should be under the keepership of a resident scien- 

 tific botanist, with the requisite staff of scientific 

 assistants. All these essentials are at present afforded by 

 the herbarium at Kew, in a degree far beyond what can 

 be met with in any other establishment at home or 

 abroad." 



41. For 40 years the herbarium has received almost all (^ <J05b. 

 collections made by Government expeditions ; and it has 

 been the chief recipient of contributions from both 

 British and foreign travellers, as well as from Continental 

 Museums. 



Papers re- 

 latini; to 

 Kew 



GaniL-ns, p. 

 43, onlered 

 bythe House 

 • )f Commons 

 to 1)6 printed 

 itth of .July 

 1^7-2. See. 

 also, a 

 Seconil 

 ^lemorial. 

 AppendivII 



42. At present the Gardens occupy 300 acres, and are 

 estimated to contain 20,000 species of plants; and the 

 following statement of the operations carried on at Kew 

 is taken from a memorial (signed by many eminent sci- 

 entific men) presented to the First Lord of the Treasury 

 in 1872. 



"In no particular does England stand more con.spicu- 

 ously superior to all other countries than in the possession 

 of Kew. The establishment is not only without a rival, 

 but there is no approach to rivalry as regards the extent, 

 importance, or scientific results of its operations. Up- 

 wards of 130 volumes on aU branches of botany, including 

 a most important series of Colonial Floras, but_ excluding 

 many weighty contributions to scientific societies and 

 journals, have issued from Kew. To these are to be 

 added guide books and official papers. This vast litera- 

 ture has been produced and published through the efforts 

 of the Directors of Kew, for the most part at no expense 

 whatever to the nation. 



"To these labours is to be added the correspondence 

 of the Directors with all parts of the world, a mere seleo. 

 tion from which, now bound together at Kew, embraces 

 some 40,000 letters addressed to the Directors, and for 

 the most part answered with their owa hands. 



" During the 10 years from 1863 to 1872 inclusive, the 

 number of living plants sent from Kew to various parts 

 of the world has been doubled, amounting on an average 

 to 8,000 or 9,000 annually. Of seeds ripened at Kew, 

 or obtained by the Director from various parts of the 

 world, the a-nnual average distributed amounts to about 

 7,000. 



" Of the practical value of these labours, the introduc- 

 tion of the Cinchona plant into India, _ Ceylon, and 

 Jamaica, the commercial success of which is established, 

 constitutes one of many illustrations. The introduction 

 of ipecacuanha is another. 



"In India upwards of 30 gardeners, trained at Kew, 

 are now employed in forestry, cotton, tea, and cinchona 

 plantations. Government gardens, &c., and a far greater 

 number are usefully employed in other parts of the 

 world. 



" By the joint efforts of the Directors, a series of com- 

 plete Floras of India and the Colonies was set on foot at 

 Kew, of which those of the West Indies, all the Australian 

 Colonies, Xew Zealand, tropical Africa, the Cape Colonies, 

 and British India, are completed or in progress. These 

 are standard works of inestimable value to the countries 

 whose plants they describe, as well as to scientific 

 travellers and institutions in Europe." 



43. In addition, there is the work of the Economic 

 Museums, which are thus described by Dr. Hooker : — 



" Of museums proper, apart from the herbarium, there (>. 6662. 

 are three ; they were designed primarily to illustrate to 

 the public the uses to which plants are put, by exhibiting 

 .sioecimens that illustrate useful plants : maps showing 

 their distribution, diagrams showing their structure, and 

 specimens of the products which they afford. Tliey are 

 arranged scientifically, accoid^ing to the natural system, 

 and, as far as we have procured them, all the products 

 of the plants are shown. At the same time it is the re- 

 ceptacle for all specimens that are not fitted to be kept 

 in an herbarium ; for instance, there are certain fruits of 

 no known economic value which are interesting from their 

 structure or from their appearance, but which, though 

 they are not of economic value, are placed in the museum, 

 because they could not be put into the herbarium. The 

 arrangement of the herbarium is similar to that of a 

 library. Thus the museums serve a double object. They 

 are ancillary to the herbarium in containing specimens 

 not fit to be placed in the herbarium, and they are in- 

 structive to the public, ina.smuch as they show the uses 

 to which the plants of all natural orders are put." 



44. There is no competition between the Kew and South 

 Kensington Museums : for the Museum at South Ken- 



