152 



Appendix I. : 



tioni of the fittest species of grasses for particular soils 

 —the kinds of grasses which yield the best quality and 

 greatusD iiaantiLy of food — through methods of irriga- 

 tion, promoting absorption of manures, would, if 

 scientifically carried out, result in a national benefit, 

 repaying manifold the cost to the State of the present 

 department of botany under the Commissioners of 

 Works. Experience and analogy justify the hope and 

 expectation that grasses may have their nutritive quali- 

 ties increased by methods of cultivation and feeding, 

 guided bv experimental botanical physiologj^ in a degree 

 analogous to the acquisition of the potato from the 

 poisonous Sulanum tuberosum, and of the yams from the 

 wild Dioscorese. 



V. To inform and guide the taste of arboriculturists 

 and horticulturists by the example of the grouping of 

 trees and shrubs, by the arrangements, forms, and 

 associations of smaller ornamental plants, by the dis- 

 position and treatment of rock works, of ornamental 

 waters, and of garden sculpture. 



VI. lu its relations to the science of botany, the 

 establishment under the Commissioners' Oif Works stands 

 as the sole National ''Botanical Garden" in England. 

 To the extent in which the vegetable kingdom is ex- 

 hibited by living species, such species are there favour- 

 ably presented to the study of the botanist, especially 

 in relation to the anatomy and physiology of plants as 

 subjects for dissection and experiment : next, in the 

 degree or projiortion in which the plants are arranged 

 according to their natural affinities, in groups, e.g., 

 illustrating natural orders and families, with ample and 

 conspicuous labelling, such proportion of the gardens at 

 Kew, at present limited to the herbaceous grounds, 

 affords the means of instruction to visitors of all classes 

 in the elements of botany. 



To such visitors also, the National Botanical Garden 

 would give useful and interesting knowledge in the 



■ degree in which the plants were arranged, according to 

 tlie countries or continents to which they are indigenous, 

 in other words, according to their " geographical distri- 

 bution." The extent to which this instructive or scien- 

 tific application of the Kew Gardens might be there 

 effected, may be judged of by the disposition of the 

 garden of James Bateman, Esq., F.E.S., F.H.S., at 



.Biddulph, Staffordshire, as described and illustrated in 

 the "Gardenei's Chronicle" [for 1856 and' 18'62, by 

 Edward Kemp]. 



YII. The museum attached to the National Botanical 

 Garden should have for its more especial object, to 

 illustrate the industrial and economical relations of 

 plants, showing the products as extracted from them and 

 prepared for commence, agreeably with its original 

 design as a centre of reception for the useful products 

 of the vegetable kingdom. 



The foregoing are important national objects, which 

 would worthily and thoroughlj- occupy the time and 

 labours of the Director and his appropriate staff. 



The national establishment under the Trustees of the 

 British Museum, ought to be, and is, able to supplement 

 and supply the further scientific needs of the gardens 

 at Kew, as it does the menagerie in the Regent's Park. 

 The Department of Botany, in the British Museum, 

 is the instrument for the direct advance of that science, 

 whereby new plants are recognised and made known and 

 their affinities determined. 



The instrument is the more perfect to this end, in 

 the degree in which the entire vegetable kingdom is 

 represented by the preserved plants and parts of plants 

 essential to the comparisons and researches of the 

 scientific or species-naming botanist. The present 

 President of the Linnean Society has stated: — "I have 

 published several thousand of new species of plants. 

 I have never published one without examining it in a 

 herbarium, and I have examined very few in botanical 

 gardens." Mr. Bentham also states: — *" That dried 

 specimens subserve the main amount of the 

 scientific work, for a vastly greater proportion of the 

 vegetable kingdom can be preserved and arranged, 

 conveniently for use and reference, in the "herbaria" 

 of a museum, than, as live plants, in a botanical garden, 

 even of the noble. extent of that which exists at Kew." 

 But the present Director of the Royal Gardens affirms 

 that " a first-rate herbarium and library must also be 

 maintained at Kew ; " and the reasons he assigns are. 



* " Return of all communi'^ations made by the officers and architect of 

 the British Museum to the Trustees respecting the want of space, &c." 

 ordered by the House of Commons, 11th March 1859, p. 11. 



that they are '■ eosential to Kew for naming the plants 

 in the gardens and museums of economic botany, and 

 for giving to botanists and gardeners the information 

 daily demanded of us."* 



Again, in an ofiicial doc anient submitted three years 

 ago by Her Majesty's Office of Works to the Trustees 

 of the British Museum, Dr. Hooker asserts that " the 

 necessity of there being a perfect and complete her- 

 barium attached to the Royal Gardens is obvious ; " and, 

 further, that "the advantages of Kew, as a site for the 

 principal national herbarium, are now universally recog- 

 nised, whence it follows, that part of the British Museum 

 collections should be transferred to Kew." No reasons 

 are offered for this averment. The Administrator, 

 cognisant of the fact of a national establishment already 

 existing, and supported by the State, to fulfil the 

 purposes alluded to by Dr. Hooker, will be able to form 

 a correct judgment, in which, however, he may be aided 

 by "The Notes on Mr. Russell's 'Memoranda' respecting 

 the Botanical Collections of the British Museum and 

 Royal Gardens of Kew," by the then Keeper of the 

 Botanical Department, British Museum, which reply, 

 datetl 15th January, 1869, to Dr. Hooker's statements, 

 was sent by the Trustees to the Office of the Com- 

 missioners of Works. To this reply I beg to add a few 

 remarks. 



The necessity for a herbarium or museum of dead 

 plants and parts is obviously as great for iihe determina- 

 tion of new species of living plants received into the 

 Botanical Gardens, as is the necessiliy of a museum of 

 preserved and prepared animals and parts of animals 

 for the determination of new species of living animals 

 received into the Zoological Gardens ; but the necessity 

 of such museums being part of such establishments is 

 very far from being obvious. It is neither more nor less 

 than in the degree of the contiguity of Kew and of the 

 Regent's Park to the British Museum, where the nation 

 had provided, prior to the establishment of both the 

 Botanical and Zoological Gardens the means of deter- 

 mining their living plants and living animals. In the 

 time of the Aitons, father and son, the distance of 

 Kew from London, reckoned by the time and facility 

 of traversing it, was much greater tlian it now is. Yet 

 the Botanical Department of the British Museum, with 

 its scientific officers, sufficed for all the work of deter- 

 mination of the new and rare species received at Kew 

 during the directorship or curatorship of those estimable 

 and practical horticulturists. The " Hortus Kewensis " 

 of the Aitons was, at the date of its publication, and 

 long after, one of the standard works in botany ; and 

 the scientific determinations therein for which Dr. J. D. 

 Hooker affirms the obvious necessity of a second or 

 duplicate national herbarium at Kew, was' d^ne by 

 Dryander, Solander, and Robert Brown, the librarians 

 and curators of the Banksian and National Herbaria 

 now in the British Museum. Such works would be 

 equally well done by the present accomplished botanist, 

 the successor of Robert Brown. 



The delusion that a museum of natural history must 

 be essential, as juxtaposed, to a garden or menagerie, 

 swayed for a time the direction of the London Zoologi- 

 cal Gardens. But these not being maintained by the 

 public purse, but by the subscriptions of private indi- 

 viduals, the real state of the case was sifted, and the 

 delusion recognised. 



The Museum of .Zoology was abolished ; its contents 

 distributed to the proper establishments, where they 

 were wanted, and were truly useful, viz., the anatomical 

 specimens to the Royal College of Surgeons, and the 

 rest to the Zoological Department of the British Museum. 

 The scientific applications and publications of the Zoo- 

 logical Society have in no degree deteriorated or 

 diminished since the determinations and comparisons of 

 their new species have been carried out by means of the 

 National Establishments founded and supported for 

 such work. 



Thus, not only is the necessity " of a perfect and com- 

 plete herbarium at Kew" not obvious, but the con- 

 trary. How far such alleged necessity has been univer- 

 sally recognised may be judged by the " Notes on Mr. 

 Russell's Memoranda," above referred to, by J. Jos. 

 Bennett, Esq., F.R.S., Keeper of the Botanical Depart- 

 ment (15 January, 1859 \sic\), sent in to the Trustees, 



* Ibid. p. 4. 



