H4 ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, KEW 
Prints and 
Drawings. 
weighs about a quarter of a ton, costs about £ 220 , and took sixty- 
five years to elaborate. 
A very valuable adjunct to the Library is the collection of prints 
and drawings of plants. They are mounted on large sheets of paper 
and preserved in portfolios. The total number of pic- 
tures so preserved is approximately 110,000. As an 
aid to the identification of plants, especially cultivated 
ones (which are the most frequently figured), they are exceedingly 
valuable ; often, indeed, where the figures are coloured to nature, 
they are of more immediate service than the dried specimens. 
Kew is not a teaching establishment, but the Herbarium and 
Library are at the disposal of persons engaged in original botanical 
research who satisfy the keeper as to their qualifications. But, 
for very obvious reasons, they are not open to the casual passer-by 
who for mere curiosity’s sake would like to turn over the books, 
specimens, and drawings. Kew is visited by numerous botanists 
annually, many of whom reside in the neighbourhood for weeks or 
months at a time — some even for years — in order to be within con- 
venient reach of the Herbarium. It is, naturally, used by British 
botanists more than by those of other nationalities, but after them 
come the Americans, Germans, and French. There is, however, 
scarcely a civilised nation which is not represented every year. 
