154 



Appendix I. 



"The Horticultural Society," originated and sup- 

 ported by voluntary contributions, supplies in its degree 

 the absence of the practical applications to that econo- 

 mical end in the Royal Gardens, yet this, surely, is the 

 true and legitimate scientific work of the Director and 

 his staff. The results of competitive exhibitions of new 

 and valuable kinds of fruit, grain, grasses, succulent and 

 other vegetables, flowers and other plants of ornament, 

 are the results of applied physiology, and the prizes are 

 the due reward of science and skill in this department 

 of Botany'. 



Although no new variety of fruit or fl.ower appears to 

 have been developed at Kew, the Director in his 

 "Report," issued in the present year, states that 

 " During the past year about 10,000 specimens have been 

 added to the herbarium."* 



Dr. Hooker a-ssigns as a reason for maintaining a first- 

 rate "herbarium and library" at Kew, "that they are 

 essential to Kew for giving to botanists and gardeners 

 the information daUy demanded of us " {ut supra, p. 10). 



The alleged instances in which reference to an herba- 

 rium is essential to supply the information daily de- 

 manded by gardeners, lead me respectfully to suggest 

 that oiEcial inquiry should be addressed to the leading 

 gardeners who now mainly fulfil the physiological work 

 for which the gardens at Kew were destined. In order, 

 e.g., -that the Department of State responsible for such, 

 application should know the kind and degree of infor- 

 mation and aid which they derive or have derived from 

 the National Establishment. 



One of the legitimate functions of the Botanical Estab- 

 lishment under the Commissioners of "Works is to en- 

 deavour to naturalise rare, useful, and beautiful plants. 

 This endeavour implies time devoted to observation, 

 skill, care, and experience, guided by scientific know- 

 ledge of the power and properties of living plants, and 

 their relation to soils. 



3' * * 



On the economical results of adding to the Director's 

 duties those of the head of the Botanical Department 

 under the Trustees of the British Museum, I would 

 finally submit that — 



Not only in the way which suggested to Dr. Hooker 

 the term "competing bodaes,"t but in relation to the 

 conservation of his acquisitions of dead plants for Kew 

 by success in the competition, is the State made to pay 

 twice over for the same National work. 



The Botanical Department of the British Museum 

 consists, besides the herbarium, of a fire-proof museum 

 open to the public, of a collection and models of fruits, of 

 a collection of gums, resins, fibres, and other natural 

 vegetable productions, of large specimens and sections of 

 woods, and other parts, with microscopical preparations, 

 exhibiting the form and structure of plants. Its chief 

 and essential part consists of "the general herbarium," 

 the "British Herbarium" with various other smaller 

 "herbaria of historical interest," also a Departmental 

 Botanical Library in addition to the advantage of the 

 General Library. The staff consists of the Keeper at 

 an annual salary of £500, of a senior assistant at £180, 

 and of a junior assistant at £150. Their time is exclu- 

 sively given to the duties for which they are paid. 



The Royal Gardens at Kew have now had annexed to 

 them a herbarium and a museum, rivalling and analogous 

 to those at the British Museum. 



The staff specially attached to this " Annex " includes 

 a keeper having a residence, with two " assistants," at 

 collective annual salaries of £750. Besides a special 

 curator of the museum and an assistant at £315 per 

 annum. The Keeper, Professor Oliver, is also Professor 

 of Botany a/t University CioUege ; one of the assistants 

 is also Lecturer on Botany at a London medical school. 



Through this additional establishment for the same 

 end as the Botanical Department of the British Museum, 

 Dr. Hooker has been enabled to publish, or aid in the 

 "publication of 130 volumes on botanical subjects, many 

 of these being accounts of plants collected by Govern- 

 ment Expeditions" (detained at Kew) "Monographs 

 published by officers connected with the herbarium " 

 (Le., the salaried officers holding elsewhere professional 

 chairs), " Colonial floras," and works of that description. 



To the extent or proportion in which the Director's 

 time has been diverted from the immediate aims of the 



* This figure appears under the head of " V. Herbarium and Library,' 

 and the Director would hardly report of books as " specimens." 



t Evidence before *■'>« Scientific Commission." — Answer to Q. No. 6681. 



Royal Gardens to this foundation of his scientific fame, 

 the proportion of his salary of £800 per annum must 

 also be placed to the credit of the superaddition of the 

 dead plants to "the Botanical Department under the 

 Board of Works," competing with the "Botanical De- 

 partment under the Trustees of the British Museum." 



The only ground which after mature consideration, 

 occurs to me for the initiation of such an anomaly, is 

 the want of space, which for about twenty years has. 

 affected the reception and convenient arrangement of 

 the indispensible additions, or of such as ought to have- 

 been made, to the National Herbarium at the British. 

 Museum. This requisite space will be provided in the 

 New Museum of Natural History in course of e'rection. 

 at South Kensington ; and the only objection to the 

 transfer of the Herbarium at Kew to the National 

 Natural History Museum in London, will then have- 

 ceased to exist. A saving of £500 a year may be esti- 

 mated to be so gained to the nation, and nothing would 

 be lost to science ; on the contrary the director would 

 recover the time for the discharge of his physiological 

 duties at Kew, and the keeper of botany at the British- 

 Museum would be better enabled to fulfil his nomen- 

 clative and descriptive functions in London. 



"Herbaria collected by Government Expeditions for 

 about forty years past,"* which are now hazardousljr 

 stored at Kew " in an old house, which is not fire- 

 proof," t would be accommodated in a fireproof building.. 

 Further, the State, instead of having to provide what 

 Dr. Hooker demands, "a fireproof building,"+ which 

 signifies a costly museum "at Kew," would avail itself 

 of the museum now in course of erection in London. 



(Signed Eichard Owen, 

 Superintendent of the Natural History 

 Department, British Museum. 



16 May 1872. 



Copt of Teeasuet Mintjte, dated 24th July 1872. 



My Lords have under their consideration the Memo- 

 randum of the First Commissioner on the rearrange- 

 ment of Kew Gardens by the Office of Works, and of 

 the changes therein. 



This Memorandum embraces three subjects : 



L The manner in which matters connected with 

 the management of Kew Gardens have been con- 

 ducted, and in doing so, refers to instances in which 

 complaints have been made by the Director of Kew 

 Gardens. 



2. The arrangements under which this manage- 

 ment ought to be conducted. 



3. Suggestions and questions of the First Com- 

 missioner as to changes therein, and as to 

 connecting the Kew Gardens with the Kensington 

 Museum, which however the First Commissioner 

 does not propose should be taken into consideration 

 at present. 



To the last part of the Memorandum, therefore, my 

 Lords do not propose to refer in the present ilinute. 



With regard to the local management at Kew, the 

 First Commissioner's Memorandum divides it, for the 

 purposes of administration, into four branches, Botany,. 

 Horticulture, Police, and Works. 



The Botanical Department has been formed by tl^ 

 exertions of Sir W. Hooker, and of his son, Dr. Hook^^ 

 It stands high in the estimation of men of science 'oot» 

 here and abroad, and both these eminent men are- 

 entitled to the gratitude of the country for their services- 

 in this department of science. 



* * * 



No alterations in existing arrangements in the scientific- 

 branch of the department should be made without the 

 Director's concurrence. 



Copy " of Dr. Hooker's Reply to Professor Owen's 



♦ Dr. Hooker's evidence before the "Scientific Commission."— Reply to 

 Q. 6658. 



t 7&id.— Reply to Q. 66S5. 



t Ibid.—" The collection of dead plants being the imost -yaluable in the- 

 world, because of the enormous number of typical specimens which it 

 contains, hence it certainly should bs accommodated in a fireproof 

 building.'— Reply to Q. eJ80.— '-Scientiac Commission." 



