524  London  Botanic  Gardens.  {KkovS£%T.' 
One  of  these  early  collectors,  David  Nelson,  was  assistant  botanist 
on  Cook's  third  voyage  (i  776-1779),  and  to  him  we  are  indebted 
for  a  collection  of  New  Holland  (Australian)  plants,  which  contained 
the  specimen  from  which  the  genus  Eucalyptus  was  first  described. 
In  1784  the  Princess  Augusta  died,  but  her  son  and  successor, 
George  III,  not  only  continued  the  work  which  his  mother  had  be- 
gun, but  he  made  its  success  assured  by  choosing  Sir  Joseph  Banks 
as  his  scientific  advisor  in  place  of  Lord  Bute,  and  by  entrusting  to 
him  the  supervision  of  Kew  Gardens.  The  collections  increased 
rapidly,  and  in  1788  a  house  for  the  reception  of  Cape  plants  was 
erected,  and  another  for  Australian  plants  in  1792.  The  "Hortus 
Kewensis"  of  William  Aiton  was  published  in  1789,  and  in  this  im- 
portant work  accounts  were  given  of  these  numerous  acquisitions. 
It  is  to  the  influence  of  its  collectors  abroad  during  this  period  that 
Kew  gradually  came  to  be  looked  upon  as  the  botanical  headquarters 
of  the  Colonies.  The  collections  accumulated  by  Sir  Joseph  Banks, 
the  resources  of  his  library,  the  magnificent  illustrations  of  plants 
executed  under  his  direction  by  the  Austrian  artist,  Francis  Bauer, 
and  the  unprecedented  facilities  for  cultural  experiment,  effected,  on 
the  other  hand,  the  transformation  of  Kew  into  a  research  center. 
After  the  deaths  of  George  III  and  Sir  Joseph  Banks,  in  1820,  the 
activities  of  Kew  suffered  an  eclipse  until  the  reorganization  of  the 
institution  in  1841.  In  that  year  Kew  was  placed  in  charge  of  a 
government  department  and  became  the  property  of  the  nation.  Sir 
William  Hooker  was  appointed  director,  and  under  his  control  and 
that  of  his  successors  in  office  the  policy  inaugurated  by  Sir  Joseph 
Banks  has  not  only  been  continued  and  developed,  but  the  desire  of 
the  general  public  for  a  delightful  pleasure-ground  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  the  metropolis  has  also  been  abundantly  gratified. 
The  colonial  expansion,  nurtured  during  the  closing  years  of  the 
eighteenth  century  and  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth,  has  been 
steadily  developed  in  various  ways.  Botanic  establishments  have 
been  founded  in  the  various  Colonies,  and  these  have,  for  the  most 
part,  received  their  inspiration  from  Kew.  The  means  by  which 
this  relationship  has  been  brought  about  are  briefly  these :  (a)  The 
staffs  of  the  Colonial  establishments  have  been  mainly  recruited  from 
Kew ;  (b)  Kew,  by  collecting,  propagating  and  redistributing  new 
species  and  varieties  of  economic  plants  has  thereby  served  as  a 
connecting  link  between  the  various  Colonial  establishments;  (c) 
