40 ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, KEW 
In 1848 the Palm House was completed, and Nesfield was 
again employed to lay out the ground surrounding it. The 
Th F al P resen * terrace and parterre between the Palm House 
Garden and an d f° rma l garden surrounded by 
a clipped hedge on the opposite side of the House, 
were the result. Formal treatment was essential in view of 
the position, but Nesfield’s work was not so happy in detail as it 
was in its broader aspects. His numerous intricate “ geometric ” 
flower-beds, with their box-edging and gravel paths, were in keeping 
with the puerile fashion of the day, but they have long since given 
way to an ampler though still formal arrangement. The forty-five 
acres that had been transferred from the Pleasure Grounds to the 
Botanic Garden in 1843 were planted chiefly with coniferous trees, 
the original intention of making this piece of ground into an arboretum 
having been abandoned when the whole of the Pleasure Grounds be- 
came available for the purpose. The mound that is situated between 
the Broad Walk and the Victoria regia House (No. 15) was formed 
of material excavated during the construction of the Broad Walk. 
It also was planted with coniferous trees, some of which still remain. 
The formation of an arboretum, or collection of trees and shrubs, 
in the Pleasure Grounds, was begun in 1848. The initial planting 
occupied three years. Sir William Hooker, in his report 
for 1850, observed that it was even then “ perhaps the 
most complete collection contained in any single arbor- 
etum.” It contained 2,325 reputed species and 1,156 varieties and 
hybrids, but a large proportion of these were duplicates under 
different names. The preservation of game for the benefit of 
members of the Royal Family residing at Kew was discontinued 
in 1849. Nothing is more inimical to the formation of an arboretum 
than the presence of ground game in large numbers. Rabbits were 
plentiful in Kew almost to the close of the nineteenth century, but 
they are now practically extinct. 
Up to the year 1846 the Royal Kitchen Garden — the north-east 
corner of Kew Gardens abutting on the present Kew Road — was 
still retained for the private use of the Crown and 
remained under the management of W. T. Aiton. In 
the summer of that year, however, Aiton relinquished 
this, the last remnant of his once extensive charge. He was now 
eighty years of age, and for fifty-three years had held a more or less 
The 
Arboretum. 
Death of 
W. T. Aiton. 
