BOTANICAL WORKS AND PUBLICATIONS n 7 
It is well over a century since the first number was published, and 
it has appeared every month during that period. It is not an 
Tk official publication from Kew, but for a great number 
“ Botanical y ears ^ as ^ een c I° se Iy associated with the establish- 
Magazine ” men t- Soon after its institution in 1787, the “ Botanical 
Magazine ” became the leading illustrated periodical 
devoted to botany and horticulture, and its circulation reached 3,200 
copies. It published then, as it does now, descriptions and coloured 
pictures of new and interesting garden plants, and even of old ones of 
sufficient importance. 
By the year 1827, owing to various vicissitudes and the rise of 
rival publications, it had fallen on less prosperous times. Its exist- 
ence, indeed, had become precarious. That year, however, saw the 
beginning of a remarkable rise in its fortunes. The editorship was 
offered to and accepted by Sir William Hooker, at that time attached 
to the University of Glasgow. The energy and genius of its new 
editor, which soon became evident in whatever he undertook, in- 
augurated a new era of prosperity for the magazine. For several 
years he was not only editor but artist as well. About this time 
he became acquainted with a youth — Walter Fitch — w r ho, by his 
native gifts and the tuition in technical matters which Hooker gave 
him, ultimately developed into the most talented and most famous 
botanical artist of his time. For this magazine alone he made about 
1,600 plates. When Sir William Hooker removed from Glasgow to 
Kew in 1841, he still retained the editorship and, in fact, remained 
editor and chief author until his death in 1865. Thus began the 
intimate association of this magazine with Kew, w T hich has lasted 
until now. Fitch also came to live at Kew, and here the greater 
part of his fife’s work was done. He died in Llewelyn House, on the 
south side of Kew Green, in 1892. Since 1841 the great majority of 
the “Botanical Magazine” plates have been prepared from plants that 
have flowered at Kew, and its successive editors have been past or 
present directors of Kew. Up to the present time it has published 
nearly 8,200 plates. It may safely be said that scarcely a single re- 
markable plant of exotic origin that has flowered in England is 
unfigured in the pages of the venerable “ Botanical Magazine.” 
The leones Plantarum of Sir William Hooker was commenced at 
Glasgow in 1837. It is devoted to the delineation and description of 
new and rare plants. Whilst the “ Botanical Magazine ” concerns 
