lx Sir William Jackson Hooker . 
in that Garden being removed here, or in Government forming 
here a Medical Garden on a national scale.’ Both schemes 
were abandoned. 
In 1846 a new Orchid House was built, and a wing 60 feet 
long was added to the New Holland House. The Orchid 
House was especially required for the accommodation, besides 
the Kew collection, of two others, one the Woburn Orchids, 
which had been presented by Duke Francis to Her Majesty 
with the view of their being transferred to Kew ; the other 
that of the Rev. F. Clowes, of Broughton Hall, Manchester, 
a very large one, eminently rich in Andean species, generously 
presented by its owner. 
In 1850 the Tropical Aquarium, or Water-lily House, was 
built, at a cost of about ;£ 2,000, chiefly for the cultivation of 
the Victoria Regia . It stands near to the north end of the 
Palm House, from one of the boilers underneath which it 
was heated 1 . 
In 1855 a Succulent House, 200 feet long by 30 feet wide, 
was erected and filled from end to end with Cactuses, Cras- 
sulaceae, Aloes, Agaves, S. African Mesembryanthemums, 
and allied plants of dry climates. This house became very 
popular, but it is difficult to say whether the visitors were 
more interested, or instructed, or puzzled, by the strange and 
novel forms it contained. One Cactus which lived for several 
years was the wonder of the Kew collections. It weighed one 
ton. It belonged to the genus Echinocactus , of which the 
species are more or less globular, and in this case was g\ feet 
in girth. My father reported that he paid a bill of fifty 
guineas as the cost of its transport from the mountains 
to the coast of Mexico in a wagon drawn by six oxen. 
Owing to a bruise received in transit it very slowly rotted 
away. 
Reverting to the greatly extended Botanic Gardens, now 
nearly 70 acres in extent, the laying out of the new ground, 
1 This arrangement did not answer ; the loss of heat in transmission was too 
great, and eventually the house had to be supplied with a separate boiler and 
furnace. 
