296 THE ORCHID REVIEW. [Ocroper, 1914 
side of each plate-glass door illuminated at night the interior display. 
These may seem trivial details. They are not so: they brought Mr. 
Chamberlain’s favourite pursuits into the intimacy of his life. He took no 
exercise, nor did he find distraction in sports or games. Yet it was a 
fundamental principal with him that every man, however absorbed in the 
main pursuit of life, should find a hobby in something wholly remote from 
it. The physiological implication is sound; for distraction is rest, though 
not somnolent. Far from it. Mr. Chamberlain knew his plants; their 
origin and history were recorded in his garden books with his own hands. 
It may seem a paradox, but a man who could hold a vast meeting spell- 
bound was not less happy amongst his plants in a garden apron with a short 
Pipe.. Yet the secret is the same ; he was above all things human.” 
His love of gardening in a wholly unofficial way influenced his interest 
in Kew. Apart from its scientific aspects, it was the National Garden, and 
he was jealous that it should be up to the high-water mark of horticultural 
enterprise. He wanted the people to have the enjoyment at Kew of 
the best that a rich man could afford, and he helped personally to secure — 
this end. 
No such article could be written without a reference to Orchids, and 
with the following paragraph relating to them we may conclude :— 
“ Kew possesses a collection of Orchids which from a scientific point of 
view has no rival. It has been built up by the energy and cultural skill of 
the present Curator. Mr. Chamberlain thought that more concession 
should be made to popular taste in growing showy kinds of no more than 
horticultural attraction. Kew cannot afford to give a thousand guineas “ 
an Odontoglossum, nor can it be expected to reflect every whim of passing 
fashion. Mr. Chamberlain contributed Dendrobium hybrids, the result of 
crosses made by his own ‘hand. ' It must Have been a gratification to hee 
When in 1913 the munificence of Sir George Holford again realised his 
larger aim, and the Kew Orchids can now equally appeal to the eye and to 
the intellect. It must not be supposed that in such matters his own taste 
was otherwise than refined and catholic. He had a wide knowledge of 
cultivated species. His “button-hole’ was no affectation, but a note of 
affection for the plants from which official life kept him aloof. One night 
in the House of Commons the late Lord Avebury, then Sir John Lubbock, 
also appeared with an Orchid in his button-hole. Mr. Chamberlain @ 
once pounced upon it as something unknown to him. It was our eee 
Butterfly Orchid which Sir John had gathered that morning in his hile : 
at High Elms. It is not trivial to touch on these matters. In drawing : 
portrait the small touches are at least as significant as the large ee 
Mr. Chamberlain’s aim was throughout consistent; he desired that vei 
splendour of a garden should not be the privilege only of the rich.” 
