126 ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, KEW 
Smith, the curator, had others, and some appear to have been scat- 
tered about in the offices in the gardens. “ Procuring a few trestles 
and planks, he formed of them a long table in the central room of 
the building, arranged all these articles on it, ticketed them, and 
invited the Commissioners [of Woods and Works] to come and see 
them. This they did (I happened to be present on the occasion), 
and listened to his eloquent discourse upon them, during which he 
showed how such a collection of vegetable products might, besides 
interesting and instructing the public, prove of great service to the 
scientific botanist, the physician, the merchant, the manufacturer, the 
chemist and druggist, the dyer, and to artisans of every description.” 
Sir William’s advocacy being effective, this building became trans- 
formed into a Museum of Economic Botany. It was opened to the 
public in 1848. 
Contributions to the Museum soon became so plentiful that room 
could no longer be found for them. The building of a second museum 
was therefore decided on. This, which was completed and opened 
to the public in 1857, the present Museum No. I., standing on the 
side of the Pond opposite to the Palm House. In 1881, owing to the 
transference to Kew from the India Museum at South Kensington 
of the entire collection of specimens illustrating the economic 
botany of India, a new wing had to be added to this building for its 
accommodation. The contents of the museums have been largely 
reinforced by the acquisition of specimens from the London Exhibitions 
of 1851 and 1862, and from the Colonial and Indian Exhibition of 
1886. The exhibitions held in Paris in 1855, 1867, and later, were 
the source also of many valuable additions. Various provincial 
exhibitions have from time to time been drawn upon, and every 
opportunity is still taken to enrich the collections by purchase or 
gift. A valuable and interesting feature is the series of specimens 
contributed by many leading firms, showing processes of manufacture. 
Private travellers, His Majesty’s Consuls, and officials in Colonial 
Botanic Gardens, have all rendered valuable help. 
The arrangement of the specimens in Museums I. and II. is botanical. 
No. I. is devoted to the great class of flowering plants known as Dico- 
tyledons ; No. II. to the Monocotyledons and the various groups of 
non-flowering plants, such as ferns, mosses, lichens, fungi, etc. The 
members of a genus and the genera of a natural order are also brought 
together. This arrangement is not only convenient as affording the 
