186 ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, KEW 
Riverside 
Avenue. 
gives egress to the towing-path on the banks of the Thames. From 
this point, too, there is a fine view of one of the noblest reaches 
of the river, and also of Sion House and park. On the flat meadow- 
land just across the river in Sion Park one of the minor battles of 
the Great Civil War was fought. Here in 1642 the Royalists under 
Rupert defeated the Parliamentarians under Colonel Hollis. A more 
famous Battle of Brentford was that of 1016, when Edmund Ironside 
defeated the Danes after expelling them from London, but the site 
of this encounter is not precisely known. 
To finish our investigation of the tree collections, we have, how- 
ever, to double back once more, following the gravel path just 
mentioned. After passing through a portion of the 
oaks, we arrive at a point where the path forks. By 
taking the right-hand route we should come to the 
southern entrance to the Rhododendron Dell. This important 
feature of Kew, as well as the Bamboo Garden which opens out from 
it, is described elsewhere. Just now, where the walk bifurcates, 
we will take the left-hand path instead. This will leave the Rhodo- 
dendron Dell down below us on the right, and bring us, 350 yards 
farther on, to the beginning of the collection of elms. From this 
point it extends north-east as far as the Brentford Gate. Near 
us, on the left, is the pleasant promenade now called the Riverside 
Avenue. In the mid-eighteenth century this same spot was fre- 
quented, we are told, “ especially on Sunday evenings, with a 
concourse of nobility and gentry. Stars and ribbons and garters 
glistened on the eye in uninterrupted succession . . . the trans- 
lucent stream of Old Father Thames glided by with an equable and 
enviable placidity.” That was in the days of the second George. 
Now warehouses, factories, and railway sheds fill the opposite banks 
of the river, and on our side a thick belt of trees and shrubs is 
needed to hide them from view. Unfortunately, it hides the river too. 
There are not many true species of elm (Ulmus) in cultivation 
— about a dozen in all, — but the collection is increased greatly by 
the large number of varieties that have sprung from the 
three native elms: U. campestris (common), montana (Scots 
or wych), and glabra (feathered). One of the most interesting species 
here is a North Asiatic one, U. pumila, an elm with small glossy 
leaves which do not fall until the new year is in. Among the more 
remarkable varieties of common elm is the cork-barked elm called 
Elms. 
