20 ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, KEW 
Death of 
Aiton. 
referred to. How highly he was esteemed by his contemporaries is 
amply shown by the records of the time. He is buried in Kew 
churchyard, and at his funeral such noted men as Sir 
Joseph Banks, Dr. Goodenough (afterwards Bishop of 
Carlisle), Zoffany the painter, and Dr. Dryander, acted 
as pall-bearers. He was succeeded in his position at Kew by his 
son, William Townsend Aiton. 
Among the many notable plants introduced to Kew during the 
last quarter of the eighteenth century was Araucaria imbricata, the 
now common “ Chile pine,” or “ monkey puzzle,” of our 
gardens. The credit of its first introduction belongs to 
Araucaria 
imbricata. 
Archibald Menzies, who accompanied Vancouver on his 
famous voyage of survey (1791-1795) as botanist and surgeon. The 
story is that Menzies and the other officers of the ship were dining 
with the Viceroy of Chile, and some nuts were brought in for dessert 
which were quite new to Menzies. Some of them he took on board 
ship and sowed in a box of earth. They grew and, as a reward for 
his keenness and trouble, Menzies had the satisfaction of landing five 
plants safely in England, and thus gained the honour of introducing to 
Europe a tree absolutely unlike any other then in cultivation, whose 
singular aspect makes it even now an object of wonder. Some of 
Menzies’ five plants were sent to Kew, where one of them — a fine tree 
in its earlier days and the “lion of the gardens” as lately as 1840 — 
survived until 1892. For several years previous to that date this 
tree had been gradually succumbing to the effects of smoke and fog, 
and had only been preserved for the sake of its historic interest. 
Its death of course necessitated its removal. 
The remarkable Strelitzia Regince was introduced in 1773 ; Nelum- 
bium speciosum, the “ sacred bean,” in 1787 ; Fuchsia magellanica, 
one of the parents of the garden fuchsia, and Hydrangea hortensis 
in 1788 ; PcBonia Moutan, the tree-pseony, and Phormium tenax, the 
New Zealand flax, in 1789. 
The dawn of the nineteenth century saw no cessation in the activity 
of the administration of Kew. George III. and the Royal Family 
spent much of their time there ; the Queen was attached 
Palmy botany an( j horticulture; and the gardens continued to 
^ ' enjoy the valuable active support of Sir Joseph Banks, then 
at the height of his fame. Each of these factors no doubt supplied 
an invaluable stimulus towards their maintenance in a high state of 
