SIR WILLIAM JACKSON HOOKER. 



919 



III. West Paek and Kew, 1841-1865. 



k - During his occupation of the Professorship of Botany in Glasgow 

 University my father, feeling keenly his severance from the scientific 

 society of London, was always on the look-out for a congenial position 

 there, even if of less emolument than that which he held. The Professor- 

 ship of Botany in the newly created University College of London (then 

 entitled London University) was pressed on him by Lord Brougham, but 

 the possibility of an appointment to the Boyal Botanic Gardens of Kew 

 had for some years eclipsed all other prospects. Nor were his aspirations 

 in this direction unreasonable, for over and above his botanical qualifi- 

 cations he had inherited a taste for cultivating plants, encouraged by ten 

 years' experience in his own garden, greenhouse, and stove at Hales worth ; 

 he had twenty years of good work in and for the Royal Botanic Gardens 

 of Glasgow, and had been for thirteen years author of the 1 Botanical 

 Magazine,' a serial devoted to the illustration and description of cultivated 

 plants. Added to this was the fact that Mr. Aiton, who as ' Gardener to 

 Her Majesty' had controlled the Gardens of Kew since 1793, was 

 approaching the age for retirement. Meanwhile the Kew Botanic Gardens, 

 which for upwards of half a century had ranked as the richest in the 

 world, had since the deaths, almost contemporaneously, of King George III. 

 and Sir Joseph Banks, been officially cold-shouldered, and had retrograded 

 scientifically. Their early history is summarised in the official ' Guide- 

 book to the Royal Gardens,' and need not be repeated here. The 

 following is a resume of the circumstances that led to their transference 

 from the private property of the Sovereign to the nation as a scientific 

 establishment under my father, who came forward as a candidate for 

 their control on the first hint of a change in their management being 

 contemplated. 



" Soon after the accession of her late Majesty a revision of the Royal 

 Household became necessary, and the question of retaining the Botanic 

 Gardens at Kew as a royal appanage having to be considered, a Com- 

 mission was appointed by Parliament to report upon them. The Com- 

 mission, the chairman of which was Dr. Lindley, reported favourably on 

 the whole, and concluded with the recommendation that they should be 

 retained and extended, in the following words : ' The importance of 

 Botanic Gardens has for centuries been recognised by the Governments 

 of civilised States, and at this time there is no European nation without 

 such an establishment except England. The wealthiest and most civi- 

 lised country in Europe offers the only European example of the want 

 of one of the first proofs of wealth and civilisation. There are many 

 gardens in the British colonies and dependencies, as Calcutta, Bombay, 

 Saharunpore, the Mauritius, Sydney, and Trinidad, costing many 

 thousands a year : their utility is much diminished by the want of some 

 system under which they can all be regulated and controlled. There is 

 no unity of purpose among them ; their objects are unsettled, their powers 

 wasted from not receiving a proper direction ; they afford no aid to each 

 other, and, it is to be feared, but little to the countries where they are 

 established ; and yet they are capable of conferring very important benefits 

 on commerce, and of conducing essentially to colonial prosperity. ... A 



