ESTABLISHMENT OF A NATIONAL BOTANIC GABDEN. 103 



eloquent, perhaps, of its value to the community than any other that 

 could be adduced. Kew has one peculiar charm which appeals to 

 and draws all classes alike. Without regarding it as the home of 

 the richest plant collections in the world, and looking upon it as a 

 public garden merely, it has an air of detachment from the great 

 city whose tentacles are rapidly encircling it, that no public garden 

 or park so near Charing Cross possesses in like degree. In no other 

 such place can one rid one's self so readily of the feeling that London 

 is all around one. Kew has always tried to preserve as much as 

 possible the amenities of the private garden — that is to say, the 

 least possible restraint on the freedom of visitors is exercised. For 

 this reason the rich people who ride clown from town in motor cars 

 or carriages can, on an3^ but the crowded days, wander over its lawns 

 and examine its treasures without losing entirely that sense of rest- 

 fulness and freedom which they prize in their own domains. 



Types of visitors. — For this reason, too, it appeals with peculiar 

 force to those whose lot is cast in shop or office or factory. No one 

 feels the delight of Kew more than the tired worker with scanty 

 leisure, who finds himself free for a summer afternoon, and comes 

 here with wife and child. Botany in itself interests him probably 

 not more than Greek, yet he admires the trees and lawns, the flower 

 groups and beds please him, the strange and unfamiliar types of 

 flower and leaf in the glasshouse arrest his attention. Still, the time 

 of enjoyment comes when, having wandered off to some shady spot, 

 he stretches himself on the soft turf, and for an hour or two does 

 nothing more arduous than watch the smoke from his pipe, whilst 

 his spouse, in an attitude of less abandon, keeps an eye on the 

 youngsters. Even then it would not be right to assume that he and 

 those who have given still less notice to individual plant and flower 

 are indifferent to the peculiar charm of Kew. They may not express 

 it in so many words, but they breathe the free air with a keener 

 relish and their mood is happier because they have surrounding them 

 smooth, well-kept lawns, beds of rare flowers, an unrivaled variety of 

 vegetable forms — in a word, that combination of beauty and order 

 which gardening implies. 



Professional visitors. — Both amateur and professional gardeners 

 visit Kew in large numbers with a view to gaining a knowledge of 

 the most suitable plants for their own gardens, to find out the names 

 of those they already possess, and to become acquainted with the 

 latest additions to cultivated plants. Every effort is made to acquire 

 for Kew the best and newest things, whether they be introductions 

 from foreign countries or the fruit of the plant-raiser's skill at 

 home. It is not always possible, under the many disadvantages that 

 an unsuitable environment entails, to bring plants at Kew to the 

 same perfection that is attained in gardens where the general condi- 

 tions are specially suited for one class of plants, and where all the 

 thought, skill, and money are devoted to it alone. At Kew the 

 cultivation of plants most ill adapted to the climate and conditions 

 has to be carried on. Therefore orchids may be healthier in gardens 

 where the winter days are less gloomy and foggy; Alpine plants 

 finer where the alternate thawing and freezing in winter and spring 

 do not occur; conifers better grown where the rainfall is greater 

 and soot a less prominent ingredient of the atmosphere. But it is 



