80 
the florist’s journal. 
enforce the most implicit obedience from every botanist, wherever 
Britain holds or controls a foot of land. If this is freedom of 
science, it is exactly the counterpart of King James’s “ free 
monarchic,” under which all the nation were to be slaves of the 
king, and he the slave of his own passion and caprice. 
In supplement to this mighty foreign domination, which twines 
round the globe in a transcendental curve, from Belise to Para¬ 
matta, some 233° in longitude, the report goes on to recommend 
the taking in of 30 acres of the pleasure grounds, and the expen¬ 
diture of some 20,000?. upon the gardens, and the swamping of 
the Chelsea gardens, to add to the renown of this (to be) most 
scientific and splendid establishment. Then come the details, 
which are :—1. To secure at least two specimens for the gardens. 
2. To supply the other royal gardens [with what? we would 
ask]. 3. To sell all disposable duplicates, annually, by auction ; 
the proceeds of this indeterminate ; but “ the value of the plants 
would much depend upon the opinion which the public might 
entertain of the chief officer of the garden, whose business it would 
be to determine the names of the plants to be sold.’' [Here we 
would ask Dr. Lindley, if the public would give one farthing for 
a toad-stool, though even he set it down in the auctioneer’s list as 
a Rafflesia Arnoldi.] 4. To propagate nothing except what is 
wanted for government purposes, and so far as the raising new 
plants from seed can be called propagation. [Considering from 
whom it originated, this proposal must have a meaning, but those 
who find it out must be wise indeed.] The chief officer to have 
a power of making exchanges with private individuals, and foreign 
gardens, after the wants of the British public are satisfied. 
Such is the substance of the proposed means for elevating 
Kew Gardens to the very highest degree of botanical eminence ; 
but how these means are to effect their purpose is, and we fear 
must remain, a mystery. We do not like the huckstering sale of 
spare plants annually, for it is unworthy of the British nation. 
The power of the chief officer to make exchanges is tantamount 
to giving him what might be made a very lucrative barter. The 
proposals are also inconsistent with each other; for the exchanges 
are not to be made till “ after the wants of the British public are 
satisfied and yet there is no provision for granting to the pub¬ 
lic a single plant, or any thing else. Her Majesty’s gardens are 
the only ones to be supplied ; and nothing is to be propagated, 
