566 
London  Botanic  Gardens. 
/Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
X  December,  1905. 
till  Michaelmas,  and,  in  1838,  Lindley  reported  that  visitors  were  ad- 
mitted unreservedly  to  the  gardens  daily  except  Sundays.  It  was 
about  this  time  that  public  interest  became  so  intensified  by  unfav- 
orable criticisms  on  the  condition  of  Kew  by  various  scientific  men, 
notable  among  these  being  Lindley,  that  the  Treasury,  in  January, 
1838,  the  year  after  William  IV's  death,  appointed  a  committee  "to 
enquire  into  the  management,  etc.,  of  the  Royal  Gardens."  This 
committee,  consisting  of  Lindley,  Mr.  (afterwards  Sir  Joseph)  Paxton, 
gardener  to  the  Duke  of  Devonshire,  and  Mr,  Wilson,  gardener  to 
Lord  Surrey,  reported  in  the  following  month.  The  report  is  of 
great  interest,  as  it  gives  a  detailed  account  of  the  configuration  of 
the  gardens  and  of  the  extent  of  their  contents  at  that  time. 
Between  the  reporting  of  Lindley  and  the  presentation  of  the  re- 
port to  Parliament,  it  became  known  that  the  Lord  Steward,  then 
Lord  Surrey,  who  by  virtue  of  his  position  had  control  of  the  Kew 
Gardens,  had,  after  visiting  the  gardens,  offered  the  plants  in  the 
houses  to  the  Royal  Horticultural  Society  at  Chiswick  and  the  Royal 
Botanic  Society  at  Regent's  Park,  with  the  intention  of  converting 
the  houses  at  Kew  into  vineries  and  pine  stoves.  Both  of  the  gar- 
dens in  question  refused  the  offer,  but  it  was,  nevertheless,  Lord 
Surrey's  intention  to  put  his  vinery  project  into  execution.  The 
effect  of  this  was  to  rouse  public  indignation,  and  Lord  Surrey's  pro- 
ject was  accordingly  abandoned,  with  the  ultimate  result  that  "  the 
charge  of  the  Botanical  and  all  other  gardens  ....  at  Kew, 
except  the  Kitchen  Gardens,"  was  transferred  to  the  Commissioners 
of  Woods  and  Forests  by  a  Treasury  minute  of  March  11,  1840. 
W.  T.  Aiton  resigned  his  directorship  of  the  Botanic  Gardens  at  the 
end  of  the  same  year,  but  retained  that  of  the  Pleasure  Grounds  un- 
til 1845.  Sir  William  Hooker,  F.R.S.,  who  was  Regius  Professor  of 
Botany  in  the  University  of  Glasgow  at  the  time  of  Aiton's  resigna- 
tion, was  appointed  Director  of  the  Botanic  Gardens  and  became 
duly  installed  on  the  1st  of  April,  1841. 
With  Sir  William  Hooker's  installation  as  Director  of  Kew,  what 
we  may  call  the  rejuvenescence  of  the  institution  began,  and  Kew 
became  a  complete  national  establishment.  After  Aiton's  relin- 
quishment of  the  direction  of  the  Pleasure  Grounds,  Sir  William  be- 
came director  of  the  whole.  The  aims  which  Sir  William  Hooker 
kept  in  view  were  three  in  number,  viz. : 
(1)  To  make  ot  Kew  a  pleasure  ground  which  would  stimulate 
