66 
ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, KEW 
Botanical 
Students. 
conditions are specially suited for one class of plants, and where all 
the thought, skill, and money are devoted to it alone. At Kew the 
cultivation of plants most ill-adapted to the climate and conditions 
has to be carried on. Therefore orchids may be healthier in gardens 
where the winter days are less gloomy and foggy ; Alpine plants 
finer where the alternate thawing and . freezing in winter and spring 
do not occur ; conifers better grown where the rainfall is greater 
and soot a less prominent ingredient of the atmosphere. But it is 
generally admitted that the level of cultivation is high. On the 
whole, one is justified in saying that there is no one place in the world 
where ornamental gardening in all its phases can be so thoroughly, 
conveniently, and usefully studied as at Kew. 
A certain class of visitor always characteristic of Kew from its 
early days has in recent years become much more abundant. This 
is the young man or woman going from plant to plant 
with a book of botany or plant-lore in hand, and trying 
to get to the bottom of the mystery of leaf and flower 
arrangement, or to fix the plant’s identity in mind. Some of these 
visitors come alone, some in classes ; some are teachers in elementary 
schools, many probably are their pupils ; but whoever they may be, 
their increasing numbers is very gratifying. It is largely due, no 
doubt, to the encouragement of Nature-study by educational autho- 
rities, and to the many associations which have this object in view. 
The pictorial or landscape aspect of Kew attracts a large and 
increasing body of painters, photographers, and picture-makers of 
all kinds. It is now a usual thing for artists to spend 
the whole of the spring and summer months working here 
alone. That Kew is worthy of their homage is, I think, proved by 
the work of the well-known and talented artist whose pictures illus- 
trate this volume. 
Kew has many functions, but none is more far-reaching in its 
effects than the training of young men for the various careers open 
to those whose special knowledge is of plant-life in one 
or other of its phases. At the present time Kew 
employs more than a hundred botanists and skilled gar- 
deners. The former are mostly permanent employes, but the great 
majority of the latter stay for a short time only — usually about 
two years. They enter Kew after having had at least four years’ 
experience in other gardens. Their object usually is to acquire such 
Artists. 
A Training 
School. 
