132 
appendix. 
say they have been the means* in the last fif ~ 
teen years* of introducing more new and valuable 
plants to our gardens than were imported during 
the preceding century ; and in the character of 
“Domestic Green-houses*” if I may so speak; 
i.e. as a means of cultivating plants with success 
in our parlours* our halls* and our drawing- 
rooms* they have constituted a new era in hor- 
ticulture. 
I shall never forget the expression made use of 
by the late Mr. Loddiges to me one day when 
speaking of your cases ; “ Whereas I used for- 
merly to lose nineteen out of twenty of the plants 
I imported during the voyage* nineteen out of 
twenty is now the average of those that survive.” 
Believe me* my dear Mr. Ward* most faithfully 
yours* W. J. Hooker. 
(L) 
Extract from last Report on the state of the Royal 
Gardens * Kew . 
Sir William Hooker states in his Report on the 
Kew Gardens* that there have been sent abroad* 
mainly to our own territories* between January 
1847 and December 1850* living rooted plants* in 
glazed Wardian Cases* as follows : — “To Ascension 
Island* 830 plants (mostly trees and shrubs cal- 
culated to bear exposure to the sea-breezes and 
