lO 
PARK Am CEMETERY. 
month, November, 1870; the terms granted by the 
Indian government are highly favorable. These men 
receive ^40 each for outfit, a free passage, and will 
start at a salary of ^250 per annum. The term of 
engagement is five years, with annual advance, from the 
beginning, of ^50, and a free passage back at the end 
of it if desired. The services of the first batch are 
highly spoken of, so that for the improvement of the 
quality, as well as the increased produce from the land, 
great things are now being done for Indian cotton. At 
the present time there are about fifty men in different 
parts of India, in government and private employ, 
engaged in cultivating tea, cinchona and cotton, who 
have been trained at Kew, and who owe their advance- 
ment to the unremitting interest taken by the authorities 
at that establishment in improving the vegetable pro- 
ducts of India. By recent accounts from Calcutta it is 
said that cotton is coming down from the country much 
better in quality and in much larger quantities.” 
The spirit a young gardener is now officially sur- 
rounded by at Kew is revealed by a letter of the present 
director: “I have always felt that a great responsibility 
falls upon the staff in doing what can be done to main- 
tain a healthy and somewhat stimulating tone through- 
out the establishment. As you know we do not ‘coddle.’ 
We treat our young men as ‘men,’ and we expect them 
to work out their own salvation. We wish them to be 
manly, self-respecting and strenuous. We put, with the 
aid of the government, what help we can in their way, 
and leave them to make an intelligent use of it.” 
From the highest to the lowest the spirit of progress 
and industry is everywhere shown by those connected 
with Kew. 
Laggards, drones and incompetents are speedily dis- 
posed of and their vacancies filled by worthy persons 
who leave no doubt as to their determination to 
improve. Studious, intelligent, energetic and capable 
young men always find a warm sympathy and stimulus 
and the absolute freedom of polit c or influential “pulls” 
guarantee to a successful graduate that his diploma is 
an earnest of merit and is accepted as such everywhere. 
Admission requirements are: Five years’ experience; 
partly indoors; age, 20 to 25. 
It is desired that blue serge trousers and gray shirts 
will bi worn Hours are from 6 a. m. to 6 p. m., with 
one and three-quarter hours for meals during nine 
months of the year, and 8 a. m. to 4:30 p. m., with one 
and a quarter hours for meals, during part of the winter. 
Appointment is for two years to Britons and one 
year for foreigners. Worthies are promoted to deputy 
foremen as vacancies arise or other assistance is given. 
Foreigners are restricted in number to 10 per cent of 
Britons. Labor is anything in the sphere of gardening, 
but each is given charge of a house or outdoor part, 
and in it is expected to promote the interests of the 
institution and maintain his charge in the best state of 
health and order. Those who give s tisfaction are 
shifted to other departments on application as oppor- 
tunity affords. 
It follows that where departments so rich and com- 
plete in numbers and species as in the arboretum, the 
orchids, ferns or herbaceous plants particularly — the 
opportunities are proportionately many and requires 
but the proof of a diligent student for the ever alert 
officials to extend to him special assistance. 
Wages are 21 shillings per week for gardeners and 
24 shillings for deputy foremen — lodgings cost from 13 
to 18 per week. 
The lectures are conducted evenings, and comprise a 
course of 2'5 in Organography and Systematic Botany, 
by Mr. J. G. Baker, whose special studies in cultivated 
plants enable him to point out with apt clearness the 
botanical differences and history of garden plants; 35 
in Economic Botany, by Mr. J. R. Jackson, who explains 
the economic uses of the vegetable kingdom with rare 
interest and instructiveness; 10 in Geographical Botany, 
by Mr. R. A. Rolfe, outlining in the course the meteoro- 
logical and climatic influences plants are subjected to 
in their native haunts, and to gardeners who deal with 
specimens from all parts of the world the difficulty in 
rearing those hitherto unknown, and but their native 
surroundings known, it gives a clear and highly necessary 
clue to cultivation; 33 in Elements of Chemistry and 
Physics as related to vegetable life, and series teeming 
with information potent to successful plant growing. 
In addition, a “British Botany Club” is organized 
each year for collecting, mounting and studying the 
British flora — members of the staff offer prizes for the 
most comprehensive and representative collections, 
properly preserved, mounted and labeled, and occasion- 
ally act as conductors of excursions to the suburbs. 
Messrs. Baker, Nicholson, Skan, Dr. Stapf and others, 
are each generous in their assistance in this direction. 
Most important of all perhaps is the “Mutual Improve- 
ment Club” that meets weekly in the Gardener’s 
Library to attend the reading of an essay by one of their 
number and later to discuss it. It is obvious that to 
center the cream of the rising talent of a whole nation 
in a room, coming as they do from all parts and ready 
with their varied and advanced experiences and opinions; 
highly instructive and interesting evenings are spent in 
debating in a cordial manner the interests that attract 
them to Kew. The interest and sympathy all show 
toward a novice in encouraging his speaking, the prompt 
and unanimous flooring of presumptuous bigotry and 
vanity and the instructive remarks of opposing factions, 
are productive of excellent results. The only demand 
necessary for a speaker is that he contribute to the gen- 
eral interest and knowledge, and while at times personal 
opinion and feeling run high, it is ordinarily prompted 
by intense engrossment in the subject, and, although a 
rivalry, it is always of the best and purest friendliness. 
It is interesting to know that all the curatorships of 
the Botanic Gardens in England, Scotland and Ireland 
are held by Kewites, and all the superintendents and 
curators of the Botanic Gardens and Stations in the 
Colonial Empire are recruited from Kew, and there are 
annually a considerable number. 
Kew gardeners, past and present, constituting about 
500, are in close touch with one another through the chan- 
nel of “The Journal of the Kew Guild,” an out growth 
of the “Mutual Improvement Club.” Emil Mische. 
