TREE-FELLING AT KEW. 91 
its pointed dewlaps spread out to view, it is really a very pretty 
sight. It is very harmless and feeds on insects. 
J. F. A. IMcNair. 
Scotia, Preston Park, Brighton. 
TREE-FELLING AT KEW. 
HE Saturday Revieiv of ^larch 28 contains a severe 
criticism of the tree-felling which is now being carried 
on in Kew Gardens. As it is stated in the article that 
the newspapers have taken no notice of what is going 
on, and no contradiction of the facts as reported has, so far as we 
know, appeared, we think it well that Selbornians should know 
what is being done, especially as rumour says that the article is 
from the pen of one who has already done good service in the 
cause which they have at heart. The writer, however, is in 
error in supposing that the Director of Kew Gardens is uncon- 
trolled ; Kew Gardens is under the Office of Works. 
“ The Director of Kew Gardens has once more been seized with the vernal 
frenzy, and many persons are watching his tree-destroying antics with poignant 
grief and dismay. These are not of the dumb class of mortals. The inhabitants 
of Kew are mostly well-to-do and educated people ; furthermore, Kew is a favourite 
resort during the spring and summer months of thousands of Londoners. But 
they know that it would be idle to raise their voices in this case. Even those 
extremely vigilant and deep-mouthed ‘ watchdogs,’ as the newspapers have not 
inaptly been named, prefer to remain quie.scent. They were very loud over the 
tree-felling at Epping Forest, but the overseers of the Forest are not in a position 
to treat the press and public opinion with contempt. Kew Gardens is a little 
independent empire of itself, and its Director is a despot in his place, with abso- 
lute power to do whatever seems to him best. 
“ It is nothing less than a calamity that a man placed in such a position should 
be wanting in a sense which is found in the highest and lowest, and is so common 
as to be all but universal. There is no doubt that he is aiming at something 
definite ; that all these sad hacking, thinning-out, and opening-up operations are 
necessary for the carrying out of a plan which exists perfected in his mind. He 
may tell us that it is too soon for an onlooker to give an opinion ; but in the 
meanwhile many noble trees of a century’s growth are being cut down and sent 
away to the timber-yards ; and if we may judge from what appears, nothing but a 
vulgar little taste in landscape-gardening is the motive for these changes, and the 
end of them will be the transformation of Kew Gardens into something like a 
pretty tea-garden. 
“ It is reported that the Director loves not trees in masses, and the deep 
shade they cast — the dim religious light which other men find refreshing to their 
souls ; that he has the idea that no two trees should touch, not even with the 
terminal twigs of their most widespread branches, but that each tree should stand 
alone and apart, like the planes on the Thames Embankment, bathed in sunlight 
from its crown to its roots. And this would seem to be his ideal in the portion of 
the Gardens which he has taken in hand. Unfortunately, in many instances the 
finest trees are taken, the meanest in appearance left. It is curious to note one 
thing — the extraordinary rapidity with which a tree cut down is cut up and taken 
away, and the cavern left by the grubbed-up stump filled up and smoothed over. 
Where a group of a dozen trees existed last week, three or four will be found 
to-day, and there will not appear so much as a twig, or a chip, or a little loose 
