lxxiv Sir William Jackson Hooker . 
In 1859 the design for such a conservatory, by Mr. Decimus 
Burton and my father, was approved. It consisted of a central 
building 212 feet long by 137 feet broad and 60 feet high, 
with a gallery running round it at a height of 30 feet ; two 
wings, each 112 feet 6 inches long by 62 feet 6 inches 
broad, and 37 feet 9 inches high ; and two octagons interposed 
between the centre and the wings, each 50 feet broad and 
long by 25 feet high. In i860 tenders were accepted 
for the construction of the centre and octagons only, and 
the work was at once proceeded with. In 1861 the octagons 
were completed and filled with plants in tubs and pots from 
the Orangery, the old Conservatory, and the architectural 
house near the gates, all in the Botanic Gardens ; and 
in 1862 the centre was completed and its floor provided 
with beds, in which the larger specimens from the above- 
named houses were planted. Unfortunately no representa- 
tions availed to induce the Government to complete the 
building by the erection of the wings, the unoccupied naked 
gravel platforms for which were an eyesore to the Director 
for the remaining few years of his life 1 . 
The history of one more conspicuous feature in the Arbo- 
retum remains to be told. I allude to the stately flagstaff 
of Douglas fir, or rightly speaking flagstaff's, for there were 
two of them, though for obvious reasons the acquirement and 
fate of the first were not officially made public. In March, 
1859, th e Director received a letter from Mr. Edward Stamp, 
a gentleman engaged in the timber trade of British Columbia, 
offering to present to the Gardens a flag-staff of the Douglas 
fir, over 100 feet in height and not exceeding sixteen inches 
in diameter at the base. The offer was accepted by the Com- 
missioners, and an excellent site fixed for it, on a mound in the 
Arboretum, not far from the Richmond Road, where it would 
be visible from the latter as well as from a great extent of 
both the Botanic Garden and the Arboretum. The spar, fully 
rigged for erection, was dispatched to Kew from the London 
Docks, floating, towed by a tiny steamer, but was wrecked 
1 They have since been erected. 
