KEW, 1850 TO 1865 
47 
the timber trade of British Columbia, and on his return there at 
once had felled and despatched from Vancouver Island the present 
flagstaff of Kew. In order to avoid a repetition of the former 
accident the task of hoisting it into position was entrusted to 
some experts from Deptford Dockyard. By them it was successfully 
accomplished. 
We have now reached the period which saw the accomplishment 
of the last and one of the greatest of Sir William Hooker’s projects 
in regard to Kew. For several years past he had per- 
^ m ^ erate sistently appealed for better accommodation for plants 
requiring a cool greenhouse temperature. Whilst such 
things as orchids, ferns, and succulent plants had been well provided 
for, and the noblest plant-house in existence had been built for palms 
and other tropical trees, the beautiful vegetation of such countries 
as Australia, South Africa, the temperate Himalaya and Chile, was, 
in i860, less adequately housed than it had been twenty years before. 
What was wanted was a house equal, or superior, in its dimensions 
to the Palm House. In this could be grown to a characteristic size 
the fine araucarias, acacias, fuchsias, the Himalayan rhododen- 
drons, and temperate plants generally, of which Kew possessed the 
finest collection in existence. Many of the Australian plants, especially 
proteads, were no doubt the identical plants introduced by Peter 
Good and Allan Cunningham. But at this time they were huddled 
together in the Orangery (now No. III. Museum) and the present 
Aroid House. The director’s energetic pleading, and probably his 
diplomatic skill, had at last their reward. In 1859 a grant was 
sanctioned by the House of Commons, and a plan was prepared by 
the architect of the Palm House — Mr. Decimus Burton. During the 
following year building operations were commenced, and by 1862 
the great central block and the two octagons were completed. This 
structure eventually proved to be the most charming plant-house 
in Kew. Agreeable in temperature at all seasons, it is filled with 
a vegetation, not so strange perhaps to northern eyes as that 
of the Palm House, but providing greater feasts of flower-beauty. 
The completion of this house Sir William Hooker did not live 
to see. The last of the two wings was not, indeed, finished until 
1899. 
The practice of sending out plant-collectors from Kew for the 
purpose of acquiring herbarium material and enriching the collections 
