26 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Turning now to the gardens of Europe we may first 

 glance at those of our own country. Unquestionably the 

 chief of these are those of Edinburgh, G-lasnevin and 

 Kew. The Universities of Glasgow, Oxford, Cambridge 

 and Dublin also possess gardens but of lesser size and 

 importance. Chelsea Gardens I have already referred to. 



The Edinburgh Garden was founded in 1670 to the 

 east of the North Bridge on a site now occupied by the 

 N.B.K. Station. In 1763 it was transferred to Leith 

 Walk and in 1819 to Inverleith Row where it now exists 

 and where it covers a space of about 30 acres. The 

 Garden includes an arboretum, palm-house, hot-houses 

 and conservatories, a herbarium, museum and class room 

 and laboratories to accommodate the large classes of 

 botanical students attending the University. 



The Glasnevin Gardens at Dublin are much younger 

 dating from about 1795. They were formed at the 

 instance of the Dublin Society and were laid out and 

 endowed by the Irish Parliament. They exceed in extent 

 by ten acres those of Edinburgh but are very similar to 

 them in character and plan. 



No British Garden — indeed with the single exception 

 perhaps of the great tropical garden of Buitenzorg in 

 Java — no garden of the world approaches in extent and 

 completeness the magnificent establishment at Kew. Its 

 early history has been recently written by the Director, 

 Mr. Thistleton Dyer, in the Kew Bulletin, and those who 

 may be interested in the subject of its first beginnings I 

 would refer to the paper in question. It will serve my 

 present purpose if I merely state that the Gardens were 

 established in or about 1760 by Queen Caroline, Consort 

 of George the III., and made into a national institution 

 in 1840 when Sir William Hooker, then professor of 

 Botany in the University of Glasgow, was appointed 



