2 



KEW aARDENS. 



gloom would ensue, and horror insupportable.' Ordinary ladies 

 and gentlemen would not see much analogy between an avari- 

 cious curmudgeon and an unopened blossom. Hervey, however, 

 is more perspicacious : — 



' On every side I espy budding flowers. As yet they are like 

 bales of superfine cloth from the packer's warehouse. Each is 

 wrapt within a strong enclosure, and its contents are tied together 

 by the firmest bandages ; so that all then- beauties lie concealed, 

 and their sweets are locked up. Just such is the niggardly 

 loretch whose aims are all turned inward, and meanly terminate 

 upon himself.' — ■ 



To the laborious Wehemiah Grew, M.D. and F.R.S., his garden 

 was a school of anatomy and a dissecting room, v/herein he en- 

 deavoured to trace the secret processes of vegetation ; while the 

 respectable Gerarde took a wider as well as a more prepossessing 

 view : — ^ 



' For if delight may provoke men's labour, what greater delight 

 is there than to behold the earth apparelled with plants, as with a 

 robe of embroidered work, set with orient pearles and garnished 

 with great diuersitie of rare and costly jewels ? . . . Giue 

 me leaue onely to tell you that God of his infinite goodnesse and 

 bounty hath, by the medium of Plants, bestowed almost all food, 

 clothing and medicine vpon man.' 



With such recorded examples — (which v^e could multiply od 

 libitum) — people will plead for the indulgence of their respective 

 horticultural whimsies ; nor would we deny the claim ;— but if 

 the right of private judgement is allowed to others, we hope it 

 will be tolerantly extended to ourselves. ^o\y the leading idea 

 at the present moment is, that there must be made, some how and 

 some where — and there soon will be made, else the public will 

 fret itself to death — a vast covered garden, in which we are to 

 have we knov/ not what, in we know not v/hat way exactly. — 

 Something of the kind is inevitable. Smithfield is to be a Ward's 

 Case of several acres, where Cryptogamic students will be able to 

 extend their knowledge of moulds and mycelium ; the Crystal 

 Palace — v/hether kept where it is, or reerected elsewhere — is to 

 be a conservatory containing ponds blooming with Victor icB regioe 

 (the singular number would be unseen in such a space), and yet 

 remain cool and dry ; or Battersea fields, when not under water, 

 are to bear the honours of a winter garden ; or the whole of Lon- 



