PARK AND CEMETERY, 
7 1 
selves and to science, declined becoming a party to a 
proceeding inauspicious to their pursuits, and we trust 
that no corporate body could be found in the United 
Kingdom capable of deviating from the dignified course 
of which these gentlemen have set the example.” The 
Botanic Society reached the same conclusion and it 
seems Lord Surrey then decided to destroy the plants 
to enable him to carry out his designs. This intention 
becoming publicly known, it was loudly condemned “as 
being a disgrace to the nation.” 
It appears that Alymer Bourke Lambert succeeded 
to the position Sir Jos. Banks held through the greater 
part of his life, (from his affiliation about 1772 to his 
death in 1820.) In view of Lambert’s office and deep 
interest in botany, it is but natural he should pen his 
feelings to John Smith regarding the critical state of the 
gardens’ affairs thus: ‘ Feb. 28, 1840 I am happy to 
tell you that Kew is quite safe. It was never meant to 
be otherwise; The offering of them to the Horticultural 
[Society] seems to have been for the want of better in- 
formation on the subject by the gentleman who made 
the offer.” 
With the lessening interest of Royalty in the Gar- 
dens’ maintenance, they were gradually assuming a more 
public character. On March 11, 1840, the transference 
to the commissioners of woods and forests was declared. 
Sir Wm. Hooker at that time Professor of Botany in the 
University of Glasgow, was appointed Director of the 
Gardens April 1, 1841. 
About the first act of Sir William, after his appoint- 
ment was to report on the gardens. He at once dis- 
played that mature learning, scientific attainment and 
executive ability that established a confidence in him- 
self and the gardens perpetuity in every one. As the 
whole world knows, the bright prospects foretold were 
not only realized but far exceeded. The facilities, that 
necessitated centuries in which to bring together for ad- 
vanced work, were perpetuated and augmented by leaps 
and bounds with ever increasing extent ever since. 
Emil Mische. 
( To be Continued.) 
GARDEN PLANTS.— THEIR GEOGRAPHY, XXX. 
ASTERALES. 
THE VALERIANA, ASTER AND MUTISIA ALLIANCE. 
This is the largest alliance among flowering 
plants. It has 16 tribes, 853 genera, and 10,684 
species, constituting about i-iothof the prominent 
plants of the globe. In some districts they almost 
monopolize the soil, often affecting the poorer areas, 
and it seems as though the thistles, sunflowers, and 
artemesias have a mission that has not been suffi- 
ciently recognized in Agriculture. Some of the 
herbaceous kinds are exceedingly rich in potash 
salts, and it is almost certain that several would be 
of great value for the seeding-down of fallows. Such 
plants as the “Jerusalem Artichoke” are easy to 
plant, and would deposit a layer of humus annu- 
ally of far more value to the land than the deposits 
from “broom sedge” for instance, while if burnt 
over the layer of potash would be very considerable 
from a heavy growth. 
The ornamental qualities of many of the species 
is well-known but by no means exploited. There 
are perennial and annual herbs in great numbers, 
and in the colder portions of the northern hemis- 
phere they are the only representatives of the Alli- 
ance. F urther south there are a few shrubs of from 
one to ten or twelve feet high, and as the tropics 
are approached some species become small trees of 
fifteen feet or upwards. Trees above that height 
are probably less than one per cent, of the whole, 
anti except the Olearias, are rarely or never seen 
in cultivation. It is a curious fact that the alliance 
is represented in St. Helena and one or two other 
small islands of the southern hemisphere almost en- 
tirely by trees. The representation in southern 
Peru and in Chili is very largely by shrubs and 
climbers; South Africa and Australia have a repre- 
sentation in most of the forms, while as before men- 
tioned, in the northern regions they are almost in- 
variably herbaceous plants. Probably no other 
flowering plants are so equally distributed over the 
earth in one form or other, for while considerable 
areas may be destitute of legumes or even grasses, 
it is rare to find them without composites. Some 
of the new botanists wish these flowers regarded as 
the most perfect in existence. They are not single 
flowers, but assemblages of minute monopetalous 
flowers gathered together into racemes or discs, and 
frequently surrounded by gayly colored ray-flowers, 
which in the cultivated forms are often multiplied 
into doubleness. The tribal characters must be 
sought for in some exhaustive treatise on the plants 
of the world, but there is nothing very perfect in En- 
glish. Few plants have given more trouble to botan- 
ists, and their separation into tribes has been left to 
specialists such as Lessing, DeCandolle, Asa Gray 
and Mr. Bentham who probably knew the species 
better than any man. I have heard his contemporaries 
say that he rarely failed to name an asterale on 
sight. 
I will endeavor to include genera of all the 
tribes, and especially some desert plants of a 
shrubby character. Gardeners in the southwest may 
gather these together, assured that they will be giv- 
ing attention to material but little known in culti- 
vation, which, if not often ornamental, may at least 
“nurse” the trees for the arid regions for which a 
Government agricultural commission is said to be 
searching. 
Patrinia has 9 or 10 species in Central and tem- 
perate Eastern Asia. They are yellow flowered 
perennials or biennials. P. scabiosaefolia and two or 
three others are in European gardens. 
Nardostachys is in 2 species both Himalayan. 
N. Jatamansi is pink flowered and grown in Botanic 
gardens. 
