.SUMMARY OF PREVIOUS ENQUIRIES. 



151 



the geological survey. During liis single year of office 

 he contributed to the records of the survey rwo memoirs, 

 which are to be regarded as landmarks i:i i,he history of 

 fossil botany. In presenting the Boyal medal to Dr. 

 Hooker in 1854, the President of the Royal Society 

 spoke of these memoirs as "one of the most important 

 contiibutions ever made in fossil botany." We may add 

 d reference to his adventurous explorations of the 

 noi-thern frontier of India, in regions never visited by a 

 European before or since. 



* * * 



This memorial was signed by Sir Charles Lyell, ilr. 

 Charles Darwin, Mt. George Bentham, President Lin- 

 uwan Society, Sir Henry Holland, Pi-esident Royil In- 

 stitution ; Dr. George Burrows, President Royal College 

 of Phvsicians ; Mr. George Busk, President Royal Col- 

 lege of Surgeons ; Sir H. Rawlinson, President Royal 

 Geographical Society ; Sir James Paget, Mr. Wuliam 

 Spottiswood, Treasurer Royal Society ; Professor T. 31. 

 Huxler, and Professor John Tyndall. 



Memoeandtm of the First Commissioner on the Manage- 

 ment of Kew Gardens by the Office of Works, and 

 the changes therein. 

 The powers and duties of management in relation to 

 Kew Gardens, in common with other parks and gardens, 

 are by statute vested in the Commissioners of Her 

 Majesty's Works and Public Buildings. Anything autho- 

 rised to be done by the Commissioners may be done by 

 the First Commissioner, subject to the orders of tne 

 Treasury. The Commissioners are empowered to ap- 

 point, with the approval of the Treasury, the technical 

 officers under the Board, and the Treasury is empowered 

 to appoint the secretary, clerks, messengers, and officers, 

 except the technical officers. The Commissioners are 

 empowered to remove any of the officers of the depart- 

 ment. 



There does not appear to have been at any time any 

 organised code of instructions for the management of 

 Kew Gardens, but it seems that the business has been 

 conducted as follows : — 



The establishment at Kew, for the purposes of ad- 

 ministration, subject to the authority of the Commis- 

 sioners, has been divided, into four branches — Botany, 

 Horticulture, Police, and Works. 



The department of botany is under the immediate 

 direction and control of the Director of Kew Gardens, 

 assisted by a special staff of officers. It comprises the 

 Botanic Museum and Library, the collection and inter- 

 change of botanical specimens, whether for the herba- 

 rium or cultivation, and all other matters pertaining to 

 the pursuit of botanical science. 



* * ^ 



Without any communication with the First Commis- 

 sioner, Dr. Hooker attended before the Commissioners 

 on Scientific Instruction, and gave evidence respecting 

 tihe administration ait Kew ; this iiaving aocidtnitaDly 

 come to the knowledge of the First Commissioner, he 

 requested the eminent naturalist, Professor Owen, to 

 favour him with his views, raising very interesting ques- 

 tions. (See Appendix, Iso. HI.) 



The House of Commons having sanctioned an expendi- 

 ture of more than half a million of money for the pur- 

 pose of constructing a new museum of Natural History^ 

 these important questions will have to be dealt with 

 when the museum is ready for occupation. 



Whether it is desirable on the grounds of science, 

 public utility, efficiency, or economy, that two museums 

 should be kept up, with their libraries, and staff of 

 public servants to prosecute the science of botany, or 

 whether an accomplished botanist might be placed in 

 charge of the whole collection to be brought ui correla- 

 tion with Palseontological botany, and the other branches 

 of Natural' History. Whether having regard to the fact 

 that the Kensington Museum will be close to one station 

 and Kew Gardens c%'se to another, on a short line of 

 railway, with telegraphic communication between one 

 institution and the other, the chief botanist in the public 

 service might superintend a complete botanical collection 

 at Kensington, and illustrate it by lectures to male and 

 female cXasses, and might give directions to the horti- 

 culturist at Kew to cultivate whatever speciihens were 

 required, and to forward such of them as might be neces- 

 sary or convenient to be added to the museum, or to be 

 used for demonstraifcion ; whether the chief boteinist 

 could visit Kew as often as he desired, with or without 

 his classes, or reside there, coming to the museum 



during museum hours. Whether the sum now spent on 

 the collections, library, and establishment for botany at 

 Ivew, might be expended in completing and improving 

 the establishment at Kensington, or be saved. Whether 

 the Curator of the gardens, receiving and complying 

 with botanical requisitions, and obtaining botanical 

 advice from tlie chief Botanist, could manage Kew Gar- 

 dens as effectually as accomplished and experienced hor- 

 ticulturists manage other gardens ; and whether having 

 his efforts recognised by, and known to the public, he 

 would be encouraged to new exertions by the well- 

 merited reward of public approbation. 



Though these questions need not, and as the First 

 Commissioner thinks ought not, to be solved until the 

 circumstances which may exist at the time of the com- 

 pletion of the new museum are fully considered, it 

 appears to the First Commissioner to be his duty to 

 take care that in the meantime no new expense is in- 

 curred at Kew, which will in the least embarrass the 

 Ministers of the Crown or the House of Commons in 

 arriving at a decision. 



15 July, 1872. 



Acton S. Ayrton, 



First Comraissionor.. 



APPENDIX, No. III. 



3499. 



Statement relative to the Botanical Departments re- 

 spectively under the Trustees of the British 

 Museum and the Commissioners of Works. 



The British Museum, the Zoological Gardens, and the 

 Royal Gardens at Kew, subserve in different degrees 

 the instructive recreation of the public, and the ad- 

 vancement of science. 



_ The contrast in this respect, or diversity of applica- 

 tion, agreeably with the original design and will of the 

 State, is greatest between the "Botanical Department 

 under the Trustees of the British Museum" and the 

 '■Botanical Department under the Commissioners of 

 Works." 



The first, founded and supported by the State, pri- 

 marily for the advancement of botanical science, fulfils 

 in but a small degree, from its very nature, as a her- 

 barium or museum of dead plants, the recreation of the 

 public. The Royal Gardens at Kew not only minister 

 in a great degree to the recreation of the public, but 

 afford the means of adding to the wealth, instruction, 

 and enjoyment of the people by scientific treatment and 

 systematic grouping of living plants. The menagerie in 

 the Regent's Park has relations to the animal kingdom, 

 like those of_ the gardens at Kew to the vegetable king- 

 dom ; its chief application is in the instructive pleasure 

 of the public, its scientific one is mainly in economical 

 relations. But, as it is not supported by the public 

 purse, _ the Management avaUs itself of the zoological 

 collections of dead animals and parts of such, and of the 

 library, in the British Museum, "for naming the 

 animals in the menagerie, and for giving to zoologists: 

 and zoological travellers the information they require." 



In connection with the healthy and instructive resort 

 of the public, the Royal Gardens at Kew have, or ought 

 to have, for their aims and applications: — 



I. To promote the introduction and naturalization of 

 new and useful species of plants, in relation to food, to 

 constructions, manufactures, and ornaments. 



II. To effect the establishment of new and useful! 

 varieties of plants by experimental hybridization, inter-^ 

 crossing, progressive selection, artificial soils, and the. 

 like influences, for which the means and space at the^ 

 command of the Kew Director may be available. 



III. To encourage and instruct the colonies in the, 

 conservation of useful indigenous plants, liable to be 

 diminished or extirpated in the absence of such pro- 

 vision, with rules and methods for their propagation, 

 based on sound instruction; to introduce and natnralise • 

 in colonies, with suitable soils and climates, useful 

 plants, not indigenous thereto ; to establish systems of 

 interchange of living plants and seeds. (This appears, 

 from the reports of the Director, to be well carried out.)i 



IV. To aid and instruct the agriculturist, by the re-, 

 suits of scientifically conducted experiments on manures, 

 and the application of manures, such as the subter- 

 ranean pipe-conveyed liquid manure, applied by 

 Charpentier to the improvement of vineyards. In our 

 climate such experiments, resulting in the demonstra- 



V2 



