319 
Only a fragment of the trunk of the = remains, but the ene 
dimensions are still preserved by the young stems which have spru 
up from the circumference, lts еей ү е (1893) is 10 feet. 
In the early part of his reign George IV. abandoned Kew for Windsor, 
and its scientific interests were neglected. He seems still to have 
retained some affection for Kew. Croker writes to Lord Hertford 
Jan. 19, 1831 :—“ I am told His Majesty has lately expressed so some 
“ regret that hei is too old to begin building at Kew, which is what 
* he would most like.” (Croker Papers, ii. p. 101.) The King 
died in the following year. 
Sir Everarp HOME. 
n the same year Sir Everard Home also died. He seems after th 
death of Banks to have iu some measure assumed the task successfully 
performed by Lord Bute and the former of affording external scientific 
encouragement to Kew. Scheer says (p. 36) that Sir Everard Home 
* for some length of time used to meet here, almost every Saturday, 
* at Mr. Bauer’s, many of the eminent men of the day, for purposes 
* connected with botany nnd other branches of Natural Philosophy, 
* and a friendly social intercourse." And (p. 23) he mentions the 
death of Sir Everard Home as one of the circumstances which “ appear 
* to have begot an indifference about these gar dens, which it is difficult 
* to account for on any reasonable grounds.” In 1820 Sir Everard 
Home published in the Philosophical Transactions some anatomical 
observations as they “ appeared in the microscope of F. Bauer, Esq." 
WirLriAM IV. 
William ТУ. seems to have taken a warm interest in Kew and effected 
several improvements. But the elder Aiton had become Director- 
General of the Royal Gardens at Kew and elsewhere, and among -— 
duties of so onerous a post the care of Kew must have taken a som 
what subsidiary place. Kew certainly did not gain ground in scientific 
importance during the King’s reign, and it got almost wholly out of 
touch with the scientific botanists of the da 
The King built in Eu Ug aap Grounds the small temple which 
his name, but seems at the time to have had the page нн 
title of * The Panthe te 4 Temple of Mili р, 
erected by Sir Jeffery Wyatville to commemorate ‘the battles fought 
* by British soldiers from 1760 to 1815.” А local tradition is that аз 
the workman was cutting the King’s initials on the anm t the great 
bell of St. Paul's began to toll to announce the King's death. 
ARCHITECTURAL CONSERVATORY. 
Smith (Records, р. 96) says :— 
“During the latter y a ard геа ое Нер ДЕ. icd „а new 
m House was contemplated, and a plot of ground set apart for its erection ; 
but nothing was done until the accession of William IV., who took much interest in 
improving the Gardens, and in 1834, a plan for a spacious Palm House was 
by the celebrated architect, Sir Jeffrey Wyatville, and in October 1834, a ж was 
selected and the length of the house marked out in the presence of the King. 
The plan was, however, abandoned on William ТУ. oving ^ 
Kew (in 1836) from Buckingham Palace (where it was sprites, 
a chapel), the great architectural conservatory which stands near а 
