26 



KEW GARDENS. 



botanists botli at liome and abroad. In tlie eastern extremity of 

 the Himalaya — at elevations varying from 6,000 to 18,000 feet 

 above the level of the sea — this traveller has detected, and in 

 most cases drawn and described on the spot, no less than thirty- 

 seven kinds, the majority of which are quite new. Twenty-two 

 of these have already been reared at the Royal Gardens. 



' We are sure that there is not a respectable nurseryman in the 

 kingdom who has not profited by the riches of Kew, and is not 

 ^villing to make presents to nsin retm*n. In such hands the plants 

 become commercial objects, multiplied, sold, and dispersed with a 

 rapidity that few are aware of. It was not long after the introduc- 

 tion of the beautiful Clarkia iJidclulla from North-west Ameri- 

 ca into England, that a naturaHst found it cultivated in the win- 

 dov/s of the rooms at Hanmierfest (the open air being too cold for 

 it), in 73^ north. The seeds had passed from England to Germa- 

 ny, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. It graced, says the travel- 

 ler, the residence of our host, and I observed this delicate and sin- 

 gularly shaped flower in many cottages of very inferior description 

 near the North Cape.' — Report for 1850. 



Here is a matter of reflection and congratulation among people 

 capable of forethought and common sense ! The reign of Victo- 

 ria will be chronicled as the era of a mutual distribution ot the 

 vegetable productions of the whole world, through the agency of 

 Kew. It is in consequence of her Majesty's considerate hberahty 

 in ceding such a large additional extent of ground, that the estab- 

 lishment has been able to raise itself into this influential position — 

 to be a metropolis of plants. But we must quote further. Sir 

 William Hooker gives pcwticulars of what has been done. 



'Our books of the Garden show that we have sent abroad, 

 mainly to our own territories, between January 1847, and Decem- 

 ber 1850, living rooted plants, in glazed Wardian cases, as fol- 

 lows: — To Ascension Island, 330 plants (mostly trees and shrubs 

 calculated to bear exposure to the sea-breezes and the most power- 

 ful winds, and the success of these has been beyond all expecta- 

 tion, aflbrding shelter and protection where none could be obtain- 

 ed before) ; Bombay, 160; Borneo, 16 ; Calcutta, 211 ; Cape of 

 Good Hope, 60 ; Cape de Verdes, 20 ; Ceylon, 136 ; Constanti- 

 nople, 90 ; Demarara, 57 ; Falkland Islands, 118 ; Florence, 28 ; 

 Grey Town, Mosquito, 30; Hong Kong, 108; Jamaica, 124; 

 Lima, 33; Mauritius, 36; Port Natal, 29; New Zealand, 57; 



