PREFACE 
A LIBRARY of books of reference is a necessary adjunct to a 
Botanic Garden in order to illustrate its contents and verify their 
nomenclature. For a large herbarium it must be even more 
extensive, as constant reference has to be made to the descriptions 
given by multitudinous writers of the plants of every country, 
of which such a herbarium contains specimens. Still more 
copious must it be for an establishment like Kew, which is 
constantly called upon to afford information to the public and the 
government on every subject connected with the vegetable 
kingdom. 
The foundation of Kew as a scientific establishment dates from 
1759, in which year the Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, Dowager 
Princess of Wales (who resided at Kew till her death in 1772), 
established a Botanic, or, as it was then called, a Physic Garden. 
In the development of the collections the Dowager Princess of 
Wales had the assistance of John Stuart, third Earl of Bute, who 
had been Lord of the Bedchamber to the Prince. He was the 
possessor of a fine collection of botanical books and used a house 
adjoining the Royal Gardens, now known as Church House, as a 
library. 
The Earl of Bute fell out of favour with George III, and 
retired to his house near Christchurch in Hampshire, where he 
died from the effects of a fall while collecting a plant, in 1792. 
His place as scientific adviser at Kew, and, in point of fact, as 
honorary director, was taken by Sir Joseph Banks, the president 
of the Royal Society and a personal friend of the King. He 
was the possessor of one of the finest libraries of botanical books 
which has ever been formed. The celebrated Robert Brown was 
his librarian, and part of his duties was to afford scientific 
ussistance to the superintendent of the Royal Botanic Gardens at 
Kew. Banks bequeathed his library afew months before his death 
to the trustees of the British Museum, where it is still preserved. 
But he left Brown the use of it during his lifetime, and an 
annuity, on condition that he continued his scientific aid to 
Kew, 
