PREFACE 
The fact that nearly three millions of people visit the Royal 
Botanic Gardens at Kew every year, and that the numbers are 
increasing annually, justifies the assumption that many persons will 
be glad to learn the history of the greatest botanical establishment 
in the world, and to know something of its aims, its work, and the 
leading principles on which it is conducted. It is to meet such a 
desire that this book has been written. 
The art of gardening is now so generally and so enthusias- 
tically practised, that on this account also a history and descrip- 
tion of Kew should prove acceptable. A Cabinet Minister lately 
described Kew .as “ the most beautiful garden in the world.” 
But if an estimate from such a quarter should be considered as 
not without prejudice, we may turn to the Russian savant, Mr. 
V. J. Lipsky, who has stated that Kew is not only better than 
any one of the many other public gardens he has studied in — it is 
better than all of them put together ! 
The author believes, too, that the story of Kew Gardens has 
sufficient intrinsic interest to make it worth the telling. The Kew 
Gardens of the present time are a union of two famous demesnes — 
Kew Gardens proper and the Royal Gardens of Richmond ; and 
although the sterner events of English history have passed these 
places by, they are not without their touch of romance. Early 
in the eighteenth century, they became — and for one hundred years 
remained — the favourite retreat of the Royal Family, and for 
nearly two centuries kings and queens, princes and princesses, famous 
