HERBACEOUS PLANTS 
201 
The Herb 
Garden at Kew. 
extremity of Kew. It is bounded on the east by a wall separating 
it from the Kew Road, on the west by one of the old walls of Kew, 
on the north by the Jodrell Laboratory and a 
private yard, and on the south by an embank- 
ment separating it from the walk leading to 
Cumberland Gate. Within these boundaries is the Herb Garden 
proper. The collection has, however, overflowed into the adjacent 
areas. The Rock Garden close by contains most of the Alpine plants ; 
the irises are grown on a lawn near ; and representatives of several 
natural orders of monocotyledonous plants find room on the piece 
of ground between the west wall of the Herb Garden and the Rock 
Garden. In the historical part of this book it is mentioned that 
one part of the old Botanic Garden of 1760 was called the “ Physic 
Garden,” and was given up to herbaceous plants arranged according 
to the Linn£ean system. This Physic Garden was situated imme- 
diately south of the Temple of the Sun. Here these plants were 
cultivated until 1846-7, when the site of the present Herb Garden, 
then the Royal Kitchen Garden, was given to the nation by Queen 
Victoria. 
The first account we have of the extent of the herbaceous collection 
at Kew is in the Hortus Kewensis of Sir John Hill, published in 1768. 
In this work 2,712 species are enumerated. By 1789 
^ r °t^ ess the number, according to W. Aiton, had increased to 
Collection 2*824. During Kew’s period of decadence (1810-40) the 
collection no doubt diminished, but on the authority 
of John Smith, the first curator, there were about 2,500 species in 
the collection in 1838. A catalogue drawn up in 1853 by James 
Niven, then foreman in Kew, but subsequently well known as the 
curator of the Hull Botanic Garden, enumerated over 4,000 species. 
In 1894 the collection comprised approximately “ 6,000 species and 
1,000 well-marked varieties.” By 1902, the date of the last published 
list, the number of species had increased to 7,000. 
The arrangement of the plants in the Herb Garden proper 
is purely and frankly botanical. The whole area, about 210 yards 
by 80 yards in extent, consists of 170 rectangular 
8 ' beds, varying from 30 feet to 70 feet in length and 
usually 7 or 8 feet wide, with grass walks between. The species of 
each genus are brought together, as are also the genera belonging to 
the same natural order. The natural orders follow their proper 
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