HOUSING AT KEW 347 
death of both in the same year cut short the project, and in 
1823 George IV. sold house and grounds to the nation. In 
1830 William IV. granted it to the Duchess of Cumberland 
for her life. From 1837, when the Duke succeeded to the 
Throne of Hanover, it was known as ' The King of Hanover's 
House.' 
Now it reverted to Banks' purpose. Herbarium and 
library were placed here, and formally made accessible to 
botanists, while the Government assumed the cost of main- 
tenance and provided a scientific curator. 
True that from Sir William's first days at Glasgow, his 
botanical treasures ' had been open to botanists, as was its 
owner's hospitable table to visitors from a distance.' Neverthe- 
less to the condition first proposed that the Herbarium should 
be thrown open to the public, while its owner paid for its up- 
keep and a curator, the younger Hooker demurred ; Sir William 
had already halved his income by leaving Glasgow for Kew, 
and such a step meant surrendering to the Crown all private 
rights in this valuable property without adequate return. 
Possession of it, moreover, was an excellent lever to use in 
the gradual reorganisation of Kew from a semi-private to a 
wholly national estabhshment, the official home of botany 
with scientific and popular interests fairly adjusted, the centre 
to which lesser botanical centres should be correlated with 
due subordination. This transition clearly could only be 
effected through the Hookers, father and son, who owned 
so much of the material and were ready to enlist their un- 
rivalled powers under the Government in the service of science 
and the nation. 
Two important pieces of work under Government auspices 
now lay immediately before Hooker. One was to complete 
the botany of Eoss's Voyage for the Admiralty. So far he 
had only pubhshed the Flora Antarctica in two quarto volumes 
(1847), with 200 plates out of the 500 for which an official grant 
of £2 each was made to cover the printer's bill. There remained 
the Floras of New Zealand, Australia, and Tasmania, and he 
made the usual application for his half-pay as Naval Surgeon 
to support him while completing this Admiralty work. This 
