GARDENS PUBLIC AND BOTANICAL 
Cloth,” until Queen Victoria relinquished it, “ for the 
common good,” making it public property. It has 
since then become the resort for thousands upon thou¬ 
sands of visitors, and a delight to lovers of beauty, 
besides being of the utmost value to botanists, agri¬ 
culturists, and experimentalists. 
Sir William J. Hooker, director for many years, 
published the first Guide to the gardens, a little volume 
as interesting as it was useful, decorated with funny 
little woodcuts, and prefaced by a page or two of 
Rules and Regulations sufficiently amusing. 
“No person attired other than respectably can be 
admitted. 
“It might scarcely be thought needful to say, that all 
play, leaping over the beds, and running are prohibited. 
Yet they have been practised, and so heedlessly that 
very serious injuries have resulted from falls, and 
grievously scarred faces have been the memento of 
such folly. 
“ It is requested that visitors abstain from touching 
plants and flowers ; a contrary practice can only lead 
to the suspicion, perhaps unfounded, that their object is 
to abstract a flower or a cutting, which, when detected, 
must be followed by disgraceful expulsion.” 
He concludes that much more might be said on these 
heads; but asserts that the director “while bearing will¬ 
ing testimony to the excellent conduct of the many 
thousands who visit the Gardens, prefers to rely on the 
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