PARK AND CE/AETERY 
158 
Quild of the Kew Gardeners. 
The youngest bantling among the worshipful 
companies of the City of London is a guild of the 
Kew gardners — past and present. They were or- 
ganized in 1893 and appointed a committee to for- 
ward the scheme, and devise means for the publica- 
tion of a journal and directory of all living 
Kewcnians, as far as possible, and maintain com- 
munication with them. The scheme has been 
warmly indorsed by the officials. 
Thus it will be seen that the object of the guild, 
so^far, is the laudable one of uniting all Kew men 
in a bond of fellowship by means of a journal 
which enables them to communicate with each 
other. The members in most parts ot the world 
responded at once. There are several remaining, 
however, whose whereabouts have not been suffici- 
ently ascertained, and it is respectfully asked that 
American and colonial newspapers which take an 
interest in the Royal Gardens and their work will 
give any notice of the guild and its objects which 
they may find possible. The technical journals 
have done this, but it is suspected that many of the 
men have drifted away from gardening pursuits in 
these countries. The Secretary of the Kew Guild 
or the editor of the journal will be glad to hear 
from Kew men wherever they may be in the world. 
The oldest of the Kew gardeners, Mr. J. W. 
Thompson, died last year, and bequeathed enough 
New South Wales stock to “yield in perpetuity 
and for all time” a sufficient amount of money to 
gi\c the guild the character of an endowed institu- 
tion, and his example has since been followed by 
others. Such stocks will stand in the name of the 
Director of the Royal Gardens. Kew, England, and 
it is hoped that in time they may be sufficiently 
large to enable the members to largely increase the 
usefulness of the guild and its publications. The 
journal has been officially applied for by the British 
Museum and libraries in the United Kingdom, the 
United States, India, and the colonies. There are 
.1 few copies left, however, which will be sent to 
Kewenians who apply as above 
Taking the Directory (i 895) of the Kew men 
known to have come to the United States, the fol- 
lowing results of their present known occupations 
are obtained; 
Editors, etc 2 
Landscape gardener i 
I iotanic gardeners 5 
Head gardeners ~ 
Nurserymen ^ 
Florists 2 
Park gardener (!). i 
Wood carver i 
Unaccounted for employments ii 
A worshipful company of gardeners is rather 
an ancient affair in Britain. James I. seems to 
have granted them their first charter. 
Nowhere can one find, however, that the gar- 
deners caused or became involved in any trouble, 
and it would seem that the intentions of the Kew 
men who are resurrecting this old guild are quite 
as peaceable and worthy of the same confidence 
which King James I. extended to the gardeners of 
“ye olden tyme.” James Mac Pher son. 
Grass Paths. — The editor of Gardening , in 
the course of an article describing some of the 
features of the Poorest Hills Cemetery, Boston, 
speaks of the grass walks in the place of the gravel 
paths, the latter giving the landscape a needlessly 
cut-up patchy appearance. By filling these up level 
with the lawn and sowing them with grass so as to 
form part of the lawn, they can be kept even, 
smooth, clean and well mown, and so far as a path- 
way is concerned serve every purpose that the old 
gravel walk would; in fact, the grass is better, for 
it permits of more people walking abreast than the 
gravel paths would allow. Mr. Falconer also sug- 
gests that this is a pertinent point for private gar- 
dens also, for one of the commonest mistakes a per- 
son is apt to commit in planning a garden is to cut 
out too many walks in it. 
Total, 
31 
AN ITALIAN MONUMENT. 
