64 THE PAEKS AND GARDENS OP PAEIS. [Chap. III. 



of Public Works have expressed this desire with far too much 

 diffidence. From official utterances and their repetition, some 

 persons have become impressed with an idea that " science " and 

 botanical research require the gardens to be closed for half the day, 

 and even some members of the deputations seem to have accepted 

 this nonsense in its entirety, and said they did not want the botanic 

 part of the gardens to be open at all, except at the hours at which 

 they are now open. But this is not fighting half the battle. 

 Setting aside local interest, from the point of view of horticul- 

 turists and botanists of England and throughout the world, it is 

 an injustice to keep the gardens shut up during the best hours 

 of the day. Even in the case of local residents, if they enter the 

 gardens the moment they are opened there is very little time in 

 the short winter days to see anything. Throughout the whole 

 of the winter and spring the most agreeable time to visit Kew 

 is the morning and noon ; in summer, too, it would be, to 

 persons visiting London, far preferable to go out to Kew in 

 the early morning. 



Numbers of persons come from our colonies and America to 

 London to whom one visit or frequent visits to Kew are important ; 

 and the time and arrangements of these people are very often 

 interfered with by the absurd rules that exist there. Then, 

 taking the case of anybody in London wanting to see a certain 

 plant in flower at Kew, or to look up any other question there, 

 is it not ridiculous that this cannot be done without encountering 

 difficulties as to hours ? Of late years the plants put out in the 

 various parts of the London parks are even more choice and costly 

 than those at Kew, as, for example, in various parts of Hyde, 

 Battersea, and Victoria Parks. Yet there is no reason for keeping 

 the public out at any time. People may be seen there enjoying 

 the flowers in the morning sun. Surely if this be possible in 

 London itself, with its vast and varied population, it is no less 

 possible at Kew. To those who know anything of botanic gardens 

 and their management, the " scientific purpose " objection to their 

 being thrown open early would be amusing if it were not so 

 untrue and so puerile. On the contrary, this very purpose 

 is a reason for their being open throughout the day. How have 

 "scientific purposes" suffered in Edinburgh and Dublin and 

 Paris by the opening of scientific gardens at an earlier hour ? 



