HISTORICAL GARDENS 
3*9 
Commissioners, in 1B98, established a scheme for the 
management of the Garden: £800 towards its main¬ 
tenance was provided by the London Parochial Charities, 
who became trustees of the Garden, and by the 
Treasury. A committee was appointed to manage the 
Garden, and see that it fulfilled the founder’s in¬ 
tentions. The original societies mentioned by Sir Hans 
Sloane, the Treasury, the London County Council, 
and other modern bodies each nominate one represen¬ 
tative on the board of management, and the trustees 
appoint nine. It has been worked under this scheme 
since May 1899. The buildings and green-houses, 
which were tumbling down, have been rebuilt, and now 
include up-to-date conveniences for growing and rearing 
plants, and a well-fitted laboratory and lecture room. 
The Garden is certainly now fulfilling the purposes 
for which it was founded. It has proved to be of the 
greatest use to the students of the Royal College of 
Science, and members of schools and polytechnics. Cut 
specimens, for demonstration at lectures, are sent out in 
quantities during the summer, often as many as 750 in a 
day. Students and teachers have admission to the Garden, 
and the numbers who come (nearly 3000 is the average 
annual attendance) show it is appreciated. Lectures on ad¬ 
vanced botany have been attended by an average of seventy 
students, and research experiments are carried on in the 
laboratory. Seeds are exchanged with botanical gardens 
all over the world, to the extent of over a thousand 
packets in a year. In this it is carrying on a very early 
tradition, as seeds were exchanged with the University of 
Leyden in 1682, after Dr. Herman, from that city, had 
visited Chelsea. 
Even in its early days the Apothecaries found the 
