528 
London  Botanic  Gardens. 
(  A. to.  Jour.  Pharm 
I  November,  1905. 
brief  account  of  this,  we  may  appropriately  conclude  our  introduc- 
tion. 
Kew  is  administered  by  a  government  department,  namely,  the 
Board  of  Agriculture,  but  the  organization  and  direction  of  the 
scientific  work  of  the  establishment  are  entirely  in  the  hands  of  the 
Director. 
The  Royal  Botanic  Society,  on  the  other  hand,  is  a  self-supporting 
body,  and  depends  for  its  existence  upon  the  subscriptions  of  its 
Fellows.  The  Society's  Gardens  in  Regent's  Park  are  administered 
by  a  garden  committee  of  the  Council,  the  Council  itself  being 
elected  by  vote  of  the  Fellows.  The  executive  officer  is  the  Secre- 
tary. 
The  government  of  the  Chelsea  Physic  Garden  is  vested  in  a 
committee  of  management  consisting  of  members  appointed  by  the 
Trustees  of  the  London  Parochial  Charities,  the  Treasury,  the  Lord 
President  of  the  Council,  the  Technical  Education  Board  of  the  Lon- 
don County  Council,  the  Royal  Society,  the  Society  of  Apothecaries, 
the  Royal  College  of  Physicians,  the  Pharmaceutical  Society,  the 
Senate  of  the  London  University,  and  the  representative  of  Sir 
Hans  Sloane.  The  Professor  of  Botany  in  the  Royal  College  of 
Science  is  Scientific  Advisor  to  the  Committee,  while  the  funds 
necessary  for  the  maintenance  of  the  garden  are  derived  chiefly  from 
grants  by  the  London  Parochial  Charities  and  the  Treasury. 
THE  ROYAL  HORTICULTURAL  SOCIETY'S  GARDENS. 
The  Royal  Horticultural  Society  of  London  was  founded  in  1804 
for  the  purpose  of  encouraging  the  cultivation  of  ornamental  and 
useful  plants.  The  latter  class  comprises  forest  trees  and  plants 
yielding  various  food  products,  such  as  fruit  trees  and  culinary 
plants,  but  those  which  fall  more  particularly  within  the  province  of 
agriculture  or  medicine  are  excluded.  In  1809  the  Society  obtained 
its  first  charter,  and  in  18 18  a  first  attempt  was  made  towards  the 
establishment  of  a  garden.  In  18 19  another  piece  of  ground  was 
taken  at  Ealing,  and  the  work  accomplished  there  was  further  sup- 
plemented by  that  of  nurserymen  in  the  neighborhood  of  London, 
to  whom  nursery  stock  and  plants  were  lent.  These  undertakings, 
however,  were  tentative  in  character,  and  it  was  not  until  182 1  that 
they  took  definite  shape.  In  that  year  the  Chiswick  Gardens,  then 
thirty-three  acres  in  extent,  were  established,  and  they  survived, 
