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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



National Botanic Garden would be the centre around which all these 

 lesser establishments should be arranged ; they should all be placed 

 under the control of the chief of that Garden, acting with him and 

 through him with each other, recording constantly their proceedings, 

 explaining their wants, receiving supplies, and aiding the mother country 

 in everything useful in the vegetable kingdom ; medicine, commerce, 

 agriculture, horticulture, and many branches of manufacture would 

 derive considerable advantage from the establishment of such a system. 

 . . . From a garden of this kind Government could always obtain 

 authentic and official information upon points connected with the esta- 

 blishment of new colonies : it would afford the plants required on these 

 occasions, without its being necessary, as now, to apply to the officers of 

 private establishments for advice and help. . . . Such a garden would be 

 the great source of new and valuable plants to be introduced and dispersed 

 through this country, and a powerful means of increasing the pleasures 

 of those who already possess gardens ; while, what is far more important, 

 it would undoubtedly become an efficient instrument in refining the taste, 

 increasing the knowledge, and augmenting the amount of rational 

 pleasure of that important class of society, to provide for whose instruc- 

 tion is so great and wise an object of the present administration.' 



" Dr. Lindley's recommendations as embodied in the Report having 

 become widely known, enthusiastic advocates of them soon made them- 

 selves heard, and a memorial urging their adoption, drawn up by the 

 Linnean and the Horticultural Societies and the University of London 

 jointly, was addressed to the Government and transmitted through the 

 Treasury. 



" But to carry out such a scheme was not so simple a matter as at first 

 sight appeared. There were many conflicting interests in high places to 

 be consulted and conciliated during the three years' interval that elapsed 

 between the sending of the Report to the Treasury and its presentation 

 to Parliament. ..." 



It is only with great regret that here is omitted a valuable history of 

 the difficulties commencing as above, and the manner of their supersession, 

 on to the appointment of Sir William to the Directorship. Following a 

 letter of his to Mr. Dawson Turner, dated January 24, 1841, in which he 

 says : " I believe more than ever that Lord Duncannon's great desire is 

 to abolish the Gardens and save the expense to the Civil List," we 

 again quote : " It was not till the following March that my father was 

 officially informed that the Treasury had sanctioned his being appointed 

 Director of the Botanic Gardens at Kew, with a salary of £300, and £200 

 allowance for the rent of a house. On the 26th of that month Mr. Aiton, 

 under instructions from the Commissioners of Woods and Forests, trans- 

 ferred the Botanic Gardens and Arboretum to the new Director, reserving 

 all printed books and drawings as being his private property, and all 

 journals, accounts, correspondence, and other documents as not being the 

 property of the Commissioners. On April 1, 1841, my father received 

 his commission, the acceptance of which was regarded by his friends as 

 a very insecure foundation on which to build the object of his ambition, 

 a Botanic Garden worthy of the nation. But he was confident of the 

 •support of the scientific public in whatever he should undertake, and, I 



