The Work of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

The Work of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

The history of Kew Gardens and its role in empire.

Arthur William Hill (1875-1941)

Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce in collaboration with JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/41356412

Journal article

George Bell & Sons Limited

Friday, December 28, 1923

Sami Anders and Olivia Turner

Environmental Appendix

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PDF scan of paper journal

English

Journal of the Ropa I Societp of Arts.
No. 3,710. VOL. LXXII.
FRIDAY , DECEMBER 28, 1923.
All communications for the Society should be addressed to the Secretary , John Street , Adelphi , W.C. (2^
NOTICES.
NEXT WEEK.
Wednesday, January 2nd, at 3 p.m.
(Mann Juvenile Lecture.) Dr. William
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PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY,
FIFTH ORDINARY MEETING.
Wednesday, December 5th, 1923.
Professor C. A. Seward, Sc.D., F.R.S.,
Pres.G.S., F.L.S., Professor of Botany in
the University of Cambridge, in the Chair.
The Chairman said that it was his great privilege
to introduce to the Society the Director of Kew, who
would speak about the many activities of the Royal
Gardens. Dr. Hill had not presided for many
years over the destinies of Kew as Director, but
he had been associated with the Gardens for a
long time past in another capacity. Before he went
to Kew he was at Cambridge, and there the speaker
had had the opportunity of being with him in the
same Departments of that University. He left
a School mostly concerned with pure science for an
institution which was concerned with both pure
and applied science - with pure science to the
greater degree, although, of course, it was difficult
to draw the line between the two. He had pleasure
in calling upon Dr. Hill to read his paper.
The paper read was : -
THE WORK OF THE ROYAL
BOTANIC GARDENS, KEW.
by Arthur William Mill, M.A., Sc.D.,
F.Jti.S., -b.b.S.,
Director, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
Before attempting to give you some
account of the work of the Royal Botanic
Gardens, Kew, I feel it is essential to a
proper understanding of the functions of
Kew to consider for a few minutes the
early history of the Gardens, how they came
into being, and how their development as
the Headquarters of Botanical Enterprise
for the British Empire gradually materialised.
As with so many of our National Institu-
tions, Kew, as we know it to-day, was not
evolved in any deliberate manner, or as
the result of some carefully conceived plan
in the brain of any far-seeing Empire
builder. Its origin was due to the interest
in horticulture of that eminent lady, Princess
Augusta of Saxe -Gotha, widow of Frederick,
Prince of Wales, who in 1760, under the
guidance of the Earl of Bute, started a
Botanic Garden of some nine acres in the
vicinity of Kew House. Frederick himself
would appear to have been interested in
gardening pursuits, for after his acquisition
of Kew House on a long lease from the Capel
family in 1 7 30, he commenced a fresh arrange-
ment of the pleasure grounds, and made
additional plantations under the direction
of the celebrated Kent.
It was after Frederick's death in 1751
that Princess Augusta gave to Kew Gardens
87
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88 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ARTS. December i8th, ms.
the definitely scientific character they have
ever since maintained.
The date 1760 may be accepted as the
commencement of the Botanic Garden, as
it was towards the close of the year 1759
that William Aiton, who had been a pupil
of the famous Philip Miller at the Chelsea
Physic Garden, was engaged by the Dowager
Princess of Wales to establish at Kew a
Botanic, or, as it was then termed, a Physic
garden.
Princess Augusta died in 1772, but during
the last twelve years of her life she was
assisted in her botanical pursuits by John
Stuart, third Earl of Bute, who was keenly
interested in botany. This science, apart
from his brief political career, was the
principal occupation of his life, and his
interest in botany has scarcely received the
appreciation it deserved. It should, how-
ever, be borne in grateful remembrance
that he took a very active part in developing
the botanical side of Kew. Some of the
trees planted under his direction still exist,
notably the fine Maidenhair tree (Ginkgo)
and a Diospyros near the site of the Temple
of the Sun, which among others were
probably brought from the garden of the
Duke of Argyle near Hounslow in 1762.
That the collection of plants at Kew in
these early days was a remarkable one is
shown by Sir John Hill's Hortus Kewensis ,
published in the year 1758, which was an
octavo volume of 458 pages forming a
catalogue of the plants cultivated in the
garden of Her Royal Highness the Dowager
Princess of Wales at Kew. This catalogue
enumerates 3,400 species, 488 being hardy
trees and shrubs and 200 tender shrubby
plants ; while in 1770 Sir John speaks of
Kew as " that garden where every tree
that has been seen in Europe is at hand."
After the death of Princess Augusta,
George III. purchased the freehold of Kew
House and grounds from the Dowager
Countess of Essex, and amalgamated them
with the gardens of Richmond Palace,
which had been the residence of George
II. and Queen Caroline. Love Lane, which
separated the two properties, was the old
roadway from Richmond to Brentford
Ferry, and the present Kew Road is its
successor. The original Love Lane is still
preserved in the Holly Walk in the Gardens,
but though George III. was empowered to
close the lane in 1765, it seems doubtful
whether the two Royal Gardens were really
united until about the year 1802. Many
of the trees still at Kew, in the part which
was formerly Richmond Gardens, were
planted under the direction of Queen
Caroline.
With the acquisition by George III.
of the two Royal Gardens and the appoint-
ment of Sir Joseph Banks as Botanical
Adviser, or in effect " Director " of the Royal
Gardens, in place of Lord Bute, the " Golden
Age " of Kew may well be said to have
commenced.
The King maintained the botanical
character of Kew with even greater energy
than did his Mother, and supported with
keen interest the various botanical activities
initiated by Sir Joseph Banks, which have
resulted in Kew occupying the position it
holds to-day in relation to botanical enter-
prise throughout the Empire.
To Sir Joseph was due that praetice,
which has yielded such fruitful results, of
sending out collectors to various parts of
the British Empire and to other countries,
which, after lapsing and being revived by
Sir William Hooker, has in recent times
been continued by the leading nurserymen
and by private enterprise.
In the year 1772, Sir Joseph Banks, being
then President of the Royal Society,
addressed a memorandum to the King with
reference to sending Francis Masson, an
under-gardener at Kew, to collect seeds and
living plants at the Cape of Good Hope " for
the Royal Botanical Garden at Kew."
Masson made remarkably fine collections,
and sent home over 400 species of living
plants. At least one of his plants, the
interesting Cycad E ncephalartos longifolius ,
still exists in the Palm House, while among
others were Cineraria cruenta , the parent of
our garden Cinerarias, and the wild Cape
Pelargoniums, from which have been evolved
our garden " Geraniums." From the long
list of Kew Collectors one or two names
deserve special mention. Among them,
that of David Nelson, who was Assistant
Botanist on Captain Cook's third voyage, and
subsequently accompanied Captain Bligh on
the ill-fated voyage of the " Bounty."
The genus Eucalyptus was founded by
L'Heritier - the French Botanist who came
to England 1786-87, and studied the Kew
collections - on a species (E.obliqua), which
was found by Nelson in Tasmania. Then
there is Archibald Menzies, who accompanied
Captain Vancouver (1791-95), and brought
home seeds of the Chilian Monkey Puzzle
(Araucaria imbricóla), which Sir Joseph
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December 28th, 1923. JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ARTS. 89
Banks planted, some at his own place at
Spring Grove, Isleworth, and the others at
Kew. It is a pity that Sir Joseph's name is
not still commemorated by the retention of
the early name " Sir Joseph Banks' Pine,"
by which it was first known. Menzies also
discovered Sequoia sempervirens , the Cali-
f orni an Red Wood. I must also refer to
Christopher Smith, who went with Bligh
on his second successful voyage to convey
the Bread fruit to the West Indies, and
afterwards collected in India ; Peter Good,
who was in Calcutta and Australia ; George
Caley, who was appointed by Sir Joseph
as botanical collector in New South Wales ;
William Ker, who was sent to collect in
China ; Alan Cunningham, who travelled
as a collector for Kew, in Brazil, The Cape
and Australia, and David Lockhart, who
was the only survivor of the scientific
staff of Captain Tuckey's Congo Expedition
of 1816. These are some of the most
famous of the earliest of the Kew Collectors.
Three of these same men also deserve
further mention, namely, William Ker, who
in 1812 was appointed Superintendent of
the Royal Botanic Garden, Ceylon, founded
in 1810 ; George Caley, who was Super-
intendent of the Botanic Garden, St. Vincent,
from 1816 to 1822 - the earliest of our
Tropical Gardens founded in 1765 - and
David Lockhart, who was apparently the
first Superintendent of the Botanic Garden
in Trinidad, where a Garden was founded
in 1817. Thus began that long and valuable
connection, which still happily exists, between
the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and the
daughter Botanic Gardens which have
gradually been established in practically
every British Colony and Dominion.
A glance at the Kew Bulletin appendices
giving the List of Staffs of the Botanical
Departments at home, in India and the
Colonies during the last 35 years, will
show that gardeners trained at Kew are
at the present time, or have been until
quite recently, in places so remote as the
Falkland Islands, the Fiji Islands, the
Seychelles, Rodriguez, Central Africa, Hong
Kong, Port Darwin, Australia, New Zealand,
and, in fact, throughout the British Empire.
One of Sir Joseph Banks' schemes was
to found a Herbarium and Library at Kew.
The present Herbarium and Library
occupies the house originally known as
Hunter House (the property of Mr. Robert
Hunter), which it is believed was purchased
for the King in 1818, at the instigation of
Sir Joseph Banks, for the purpose to which
it is now dedicated. A room on the ground
floor was fitted with bookshelves, and no
doubt the botanical collections brought
home by the Kew Collectors were deposited
in the building.
Unfortunately, the King and Sir Joseph
both died in 1820, and Kew suffered greatly
in consequence. Sir Joseph's Library and
Herbarium, including the botanical speci-
mens brought home by the Kew Collectors,
were bequeathed to the British Museum,
and became the foundation of its Botanical
Department, so that Kew, unfortunately,
does not now possess the fruits of the
labours of her earliest sons.
George IV. at first took a good deal of
interest in Kew, and adhered to the plan of
adapting Hunter House to its present
purpose. He also added considerably to
the amenities of the Gardens on the Kew
Green side, but in 1823 he sold Hunter House
to the Nation. Notwithstanding this, how-
ever, William IV., about 1830, granted its
use to the Duchess of Cumberland for her
life, and, on the Duke's accession to the
throne of Hanover, it became generally
known as Hanover House. Here the King
of Hanover sometimes resided, but after
his death in 1851, it remained unoccupied,
and,in 1852 its use for Herbarium purposes
once more commenced, thanks to the action
of Sir William Hooker.
The house itself now serves as our
Library, while the Herbarium occupies two
extensive wings which have been added to
the north and to the west of the original
house. The Herbarium contains a remark-
able series of specimens of dried plants
from every part of the world, representing
especially the floras of the various parts of
the British Empire. Between 3,000,000 and
4,000,000 specimens and comprehensive
collections of plant portraits, fruits and
seeds are preserved in the Herbarium,
while the Library, which is probably the
finest botanical library in existence, con-
tains some 30,000 volumes. The annvial
additions of pressed specimens to the
Herbarium amount to about 30,000 sheets.
The death of Sir Joseph Banks, in 1820,
was a serious blow to Kew, and though the
activities which he initiated, and which
received such warm support from George
III., were continued to some extent after
his death, there was no real progress in
the development of the Gardens, but
rather they suffered a steady decline.
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90 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ARTS. December 28th, 1923.
George IV. soon abandoned Kew for
Windsor and Sir Everard Home appears to
have assumed the task of directing the
affairs of Kew, and used to meet at the house
of Francis Bauer " the eminent men of the
day for purposes connected with Botany
and other branches of Natural Philosophy."
Francis Bauer, F.R.S., it should be
mentioned, was an Austrian who came to
England in 1788 and in 1790 was, through
Sir Joseph Banks' liberality and with the
King's sanction, attached as Draughtsman
to the Botanic Garden. He occupied the
position for fifty years, until his death in
1840. This most essential post in connection
with a Botanical Institution such as Kew has
recently been properly recognised by Govern-
ment, and a Botanical Artist is now one of
the established officers on the scientific
staff of the Royal Botanic Gardens.
Sir Everard Home died in 1832, two years
after the death of George IV., and, though
William IV. took a warm interest in Kew,
the Gardens and all that Sir Joseph Banks
had laboured to achieve, languished, and
their scientific importance was so lost sight
of that the scientific botanists of the day
appear almost entirely to have got out of
touch with Kew.
Collecting activities fortunately did not
entirely cease, and some valuable additions
were made, but the Gardens were still a
private establishment. Visitors, however,
had free access on certain days, thanks
largely to Mr. W. T. Aiton (son of the first
Curator, W. Aiton), who was Director-
General not only of Kew but of other
Royal Pleasure Gardens in addition.
It was after the death of William IV., in
1837, that the position of the Royal Gardens
became precarious, and their abandonment
was seriously considered, so much so, that
the Treasury in January, 1838, appointed
a Committee " to inquire into the manage-
ment, etc., of the Royal Gardens." This
committee consisted of Dr. Lindley and two
practical gardeners, one of whom was the
future Sir Joseph Paxton. Without going
into the full details of their inquiry, and
narrating all that took place when Dr.
Lindley's Report was presented to Parlia-
ment in 1840 - though he reported in 1838 -
it will suffice to record that after the dis-
cussion in the House of Lords, the charge
of Kew was removed from the control of
the Board of Green Cloth, and transferred
to the Department of Woods and Works
on March 11th, 1840.*
On the dissociation of the Department
of Woods from the Office of Works, Kew,
like the Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh,
came under the control of H.M. Office of
Works, but though the Edinburgh Gardens
are still in the domain of the First Com-
missioner of H.M. Works, Kew was trans-
ferred in 1903 to the care of the Board (now
the Ministry) of Agriculture and Fisheries,
as far as its general administration is
concerned.
When this transfer took place, it was laid
down " that the privilege enjoyed by the
Foreign Office, Colonial Office and India
Office of corresponding directly with the
Director will be preserved to those Depart-
ments," and I need hardly point out, that
from the nature of the work performed at
Kew, this very important privilege is highly
valued by the Director of Kew.
The outcome of Dr. Lindley's Report was
the renaissance of the Royal Gardens, which
dates from the year 1841, when, on April
1st, Sir William Hooker, F.R.S., Regius
Professor of Botany in the University of
Glasgow, was appointed Director of the
Botanic Gardens.
In the year 1841, W. T. Aiton resigned his
position of Superintendent of the Botanic
Garden - a post he had held for fifty years -
and John Smith, previously Foreman, was
appointed Curator, and was the first Curator
of Kew as a Public Establishment.
The continuance of the existence of Kew
in these evil days seems to have been due
rather to the interest of Her Majesty Queen
Victoria, than to the popular agitation that
♦The following is the principal part of Dr. Lindley's
Report presented to Parliament in 1840.
"The importance of Botanic Gardens has for centuries
been recognised by the governments of civilised states, and
at this time there is no European nation without such an
establishment except England. The wealthiest and most
civilised country in Europe offers the only European
example of the want of one of the first proofs of wealth and
civilisation. There are many gardens in the British
Colonies and Dependencies, as Calcutta, Bombay, Saharun-
pore, the Mauritius, Sydney and Trinidad, costing many
thousands a year ; their utility is much diminished by the
want of some system under which they can all be regulated
and controlled. There is no unity of purpose among them ;
their objects are unsettled, their powers wasted from not
receiving a proper direction ; they afford no aid to each
other, and, it is to be feared, but little to the countries
where they are established ; and yet they are capable of
conferring very important benefits on commerce, and of
conducing essentially to colonial prosperity. ... A
National Botanic Garden would be the centre around which
all these lesser establishments should be arranged ; they
should all be placed under the control of the chief of that
garden, acting with him and through him with each other,
recording constantly their proceedings, explaining their
wants, receiving supplies, and aiding the mother country
in everything useful in the vegetable kingdom ; medicine,
commerce, agriculture, horticulture, and many branches
of manufacture would derive considerable advantage from
the establishment of such a system. . . . From a garden
of this kind Government could always obtain authentic
and official information upon points connected with the
establishment of new colonies."
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December 28th , 1923. JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ARTS. 91
its proposed abandonment aroused. The
following extract from a letter to John
Smith by Mr. Aylmer Bourke Lambert,
a private gentleman keenly interested in
botany, who seems to have succeeded to
the role of Sir Joseph Banks in the affairs
of Kew, is of interest in showing the part
played by the Sovereign in the preservation
of Kew.
March 9th, 1840. ' ' You will not be a little
surprised, and I think not less grateful
when I tell you that your letter that you
wrote me giving particulars of the origin
of Kew Gardens, and the interest taken by
the Princess of Saxe -Gotha, that said letter
went to the throne, and (was) read by Her
Majesty and Prince Albert, they were
much interested in it. There is no doubt
that was the reason Lord Ilchester came to
Kew, as he is one of Her Majesty's house-
hold."
Sir William's charge, when he assumed
office, comprised only 15 acres, yet his
appointment inaugurated that new era
in the history of Kew, which, though
perhaps in some directions not so eventful
as in the days of Sir Joseph Banks, has been
a period of uninterrupted progress and
notable achievement.
These, then, were the traditions of Kew,
and such were the labours of other men
into which Sir William Hooker, in 1841,
was called upon to enter. In that year,
Kew was not, alas, the inspiring place
created by Sir Joseph Banks, but a moribund
and decadent institution waiting to be
restored to its former eminence, a task
for which Sir William was peculiarly fitted.
It is no doubt his son and successor in
office, Sir Joseph Hooker, who is generally
thought of as the Director who re-established
the prestige of Kew and succeeded in
making it the centre of botanical enterprise
for the Empire, but it must not be forgotten
that practically every one of the proposals
and schemes for the development of the
work of Kew on the lines which are still
followed, were conceived with remarkable
foresight and set in motion by Sir William
Hooker.
In 1843 Sir William Hooker, as I have
stated, reverted to the plan initiated by
Sir Joseph Banks, of sending collectors to
distant countries for the purpose of trans-
mitting plants and seeds to the Royal
Gardens. Among Sir William's Collectors
should be mentioned W. Purdie, who was
sent to New Granada ; G. Mann, who went
to the Cameroons, Gaboon River and
Fernando Po ; W. B. Baikie and C. Barter,
who went to the Niger ; John (later Sir
John) Kirk, to the Zambesi with Livingstone;
Sir Joseph Hooker to the Himalaya ;
Edmonstone, followed by B. C. Seemann, to
Western and Arctic America in H.M.S.
Herald, and the latter to the Fiji Islands
with Col. Smythe's mission, and also R.
Spruce who was sent to Ecuador for
Cinchona seeds.
It would be a long story were I to attempt
to give in detail the history of the many
activities of Kew, even with regard to India
and our overseas Dominions and Colonies
during the Directorships of the two Hookers,
of Sir William Thiselton-Dyer and of Sir
David Prain ; for the Director of Kew is
also Botanical Adviser to the Secretary of
State for the Colonies, and is consulted on
Indian botanical matters by the Secretary of
State for India. Thus the shelves of the
Director's office are filled with folios dealing
with questions concerning the introduction •
of useful plants to our Colonies and India
from other regions, and with every sort of
enquiry as to the world's economic products
so far as they relate to the vegetable kingdom.
The work of the Royal Botanic Gardens,
Kew, is divided up into four main divisions,
only one of which, however, is generally
known about and appreciated by the people
of this country. This, I need hardly say,
is the garden proper. To most people the
name Kew Gardens, or as they should
properly be called, the Royal Botanic
Gardens, Kew, represents a beautiful garden
of herbaceous plants, trees and shrubs,
and many greenhouses, some of which they
find uncomfortably hot. To a select few,
who, one is glad to say, are ever an increasing
number, the Gardens are recognised as the
place where the attempt is made to cultivate
every variety of plant " that is pleasant to
the sight and good for food," under the
best conditions that Kew can provide, and
they, together with those botanists who are
also lovers of plants, fully appreciate the
scientific order of the collections. These
have been so skilfully arranged, thanks
largely to the keen instinct for landscape
effect possessed by Sir William Thiselton-
Dyer and by the Curators of the Gardens,
that the general public are scarcely aware
that the garden lay out is governed by any
scientific principles at all.
One is tempted to believe that among
our many student visitors there are some
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92 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ARTS. December 28th, 1923 .
who have realised that the 4 4 Tree of
Knowledge " also is to be found at Kew.
The next department which commands
a fair share of public interest, and also, one
hopes, serves as a means of liberal education,
is that of the Museums.
Four Museum buildings now house the
varied and extensive economic collections,
which comprise examples of the economic
products of the plants of the world. The
Museum collections, though brought together
with the definite purpose of illustrating
the uses to which plants may be put, are
really complementary and ancillary to the
collections in the Herbarium and in the
Garden, and one collection without the
other would lose very much of its importance
and value. The housing of the collections
in four separate buildings, is an unfortunate
arrangement as far as economical working
of the Department is concerned, and
also somewhat unsatisfactory since three
of the buildings have been adapted to serve
their present purpose and are not as well
suited for the exhibition of specimens as
they might be.
The original museum collection, which
was the first of its kind brought together
for the purpose of exhibiting in systematic
order the economic products derived from
plants, was due to the foresight of Sir
William Hooker. In 1847, owing to Sir
William's representations, the fruit store-
house belonging to the Royal Family, now
Museum No. II., was, by Her Majesty's
command, added to the Botanic Garden
and Sir William's own private collection,
which he presented to the Nation, formed
the nucleus around which our present
extensive collections have been built up.
The objects exhibited could not be shown
either by the living plants in the Garden
or by the specimens preserved in the Her-
barium, and the value of these collections
has become increasingly evident iii the course
of years, so that now practically every
vegetable product from any part of the
globe can be accurately determined.
As soon as the establishment and aim
of the Museum was generally made known,
contributions poured in from all quarters
of the world, and the original building
became so crowded that application had
to be made to Parliament for a new building
for the proper accommodation of the
specimens.
In 1857, to meet this need, the present
No. 1 Museum was opened. Here the
economic products derived from the Dicoty-
ledonous plants (including such well-known
objects as cocoa, coffee, cinchona, rubber,
tea, etc.), are displayed, while the products
derived from the Monocotyledons, such as
palms, bamboos, grasses, the various food
grains and articles, such as mats, hats,
vegetable ivory, etc., are exhibited in the
original museum, now called Museum No.
II. Thus it may now, I believe, be said
with full truth that it is almost impossible
to point out any Colonial product, however
insignificant, which is not adequately repre-
sented in the Kew Museums.
No. Ill Museum, the home of Tropical
Timbers in particular, was formerly the
Orangery of the original Royal Gardens ;
while No. IV. Museum, our most recent,
acquisition, which contains a remarkable
collection of British-grown timber, and the
articles made therefrom, as well as a com-
plete series of the fungus and insect pests
to which trees are subject in this country,
has been housed in Cambridge Cottage.
This building was formerly the private
residence of His Royal Highness, the
late Duke of Cambridge, and was after
his death graciously made over to Kew by
the Crown, and opened to the public in 1910.
Three of our Museum Buildings, as I
have mentioned, are none too well suited
for their purpose, since they were not built
for the display of museum specimens, still,
they serve their function very fairly well.
No. I. Museum was enlarged in the year
1881, and both it and No. II., which is the
least suitable for a museum, are now
inconveniently crowded. It is to be hoped
that before long a further enlargement of
No. I. Museum may be sanctioned on such a
scale that not only the crowded out products
derived from the Dicotyledonous plants can
be included, but also the Monocotyledon
exhibits now displayed in No. II. Museum.
If this should ever be sanctioned, then the
whole range of vegetable products, exclusive
of the timbers of the world, could be studied
under one roof, in proper systematic
sequence.
What, it may be asked, is the purpose
of these collections, and in what way are
they connected with the work of Kew ?
Their chief object is to show the practical
applications of botanical science, and to
enable students and those engaged in
commercial pursuits both at home and from
overseas, to appreciate the general relations
of the vegetable world to man, and in
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December 28th , 1923. JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ARTS. 93
particular to exhibit the vast resources
of the Empire. We learn from them
the sources of the innumerable products
furnished by plants for our use and con-
venience, whether as articles of food, of
construction and application in the arts,
of medicine or curiosity. They also show
us the points where we need further informa-
tion, more especially as to the origin of
many valuable timbers, fibres and drugs.
In short, not only do these collections
tell us how much we have already dis-
covered, but also how little we still know
of the extent to which herbs, shrubs and
trees contribute to our necessities, comforts
and our numberless requirements.
Closely associated with the Museums,
as it is also with the garden proper and
the work of the Herbarium, the Jodrell
Laboratory must now be mentioned. Here,
thanks to the munificence of Mr. T. J.
Phillips Jodrell, who built and equipped
the Laboratory at his own expense in 1876,
we have a department where wTork can be
undertaken to determine the structure,
functions and properties of obscure vegetable
products, and it is seldom that it is not
possible by means of careful research, to
solve the problems which are constantly
being presented to us by our correspondents
both at home and abroad. Without the
wealth of material in the Museums and the
Herbarium for comparison and examination,
the many valuable results which have
been achieved in this laboratory would
not have been possible.
The Laboratory is also fitted for physio-
logical and mycological investigations, and
some famous researches by distinguished
botanists have been carried out within its
walls. Research students are welcomed
here, and are able to study, as nowhere
else, the problems presented by the vegeta-
tion of the globe illustrated, as it is, by the
collections of living and preserved plants
in the Royal Botanic Gardens.
The North Gallery, built and presented
by Miss Marianne North, in 1885, is also an
appanage of the Museums, and, as is well-
known, in this remarkable botanical picture
gallery plants from all over the world
may be seen painted in oils by her master
hand. The pictures are renowned for their
botanical accuracy as well as for their
artistic skill, and these qualities render them
of infinite value in a scientific establishment
like Kew where an attempt is made to grow,
portray, preserve and study as fully as
possible the wonders of the vegetable
kingdon.
A smaller collection of pictures by Miss
M. H. Mason, of South African plants, in
Museum No. IV., may also be referred
to here, since they enable us to appreciate
very clearly the special characteristics of
the vegetation of South Africa.
This brings me to the fourth depart-
ment, the Herbarium. The present Her-
barium collections, as I have stated, owe
their origin to Sir William Hooker, since
those earlier and famous collections made
by Sir Joseph Banks and the Kew Collectors,
are now at South Kensington.
When Sir William came to Kew, he
brought with him his own large collection
of dried plants, and in 1854 this was greatly
augmented by the collections of the dis-
tinguished botanist, Mr. George Bentham,
who presented his fine private Herbarium
and Library to the Nation. This nucleus
has been continually added to by official
contributions, by exchanges and by the
judicious expenditure of our small annual
parliamentary grant voted for the purpose,
so that now the Kew Herbarium contains
between three and four million specimens.
In the Herbarium, which is the largest
and most completely organised in the world,
in addition to the collection of dried speci-
mens, we possess a magnificent collection of
coloured botanical drawings of plants, so
that not only can a large number of the
plants of the globe be studied in the living
condition, and as pressed specimens, but
they can be examined as delineated by
botanical artists, both as they have flowered
at home, and also in many cases (Miss
North's pictures) as they grow and flower
in their native countries.
Such botanical studies are of very great
assistance to the work performed at Kew
in connection with the Floras of the different
parts of the world.
The work carried out in the Herbarium
is one of the most important of the
functions of Kew. What exactly that work
is may be gathered from a perusal of
the pages of the Kew Bulletin for the year
1905, compiled by Sir William Thiselton-
Dyer. In addition to the attempt that is
being made to complete a botanical survey
of the Empire, detailed researches are being
undertaken in connection with the floras
of the world, and particular attention is
always being paid to the determination of
plants which may prove to be of economic
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94 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ARTS. December 28tli, 1923.
importance, whether as food or for use in
the arts, and which might be introduced
with advantage to one or other of our over-
seas possessions.
Unless a plant, which may possess definite
economic possibilities, has been identified
botanically, it is quite useless to attempt
its introduction to cultivation without
incurring the grave risk of bringing in a
worthless plant. The more we get to know
about plants, and the more we discover
how considerable a range of variation
they exhibit, both as regards form and in
their constitution, the more we understand
the importance of arriving at an exact
determination of the particular species or of
some special varietal form which it may be
desirable to introduce in order that it may
be a commercial success.
Had it been appreciated earlier that
species show fundamental physiological varia-
tions, which are often only rendered apparent
by experiment in the laboratory, as well
as the more easily discernible morphological
variations, much labour and money might
have been saved.
I may instance two examples which
affect the British Empire, with both of
which Kew has been intimately concerned.
In the one case, that of Camphor, the pro-
duct derived from Cinnamomum Camphora ,
Nees, native of Formosa and Japan, Kew
must plead ignorance. In the other, that
of Para Rubber Hevea brasiliensis, Muell. Arg.
the blame must be attached to the rubber
growers. They failed to appreciate the
fact that science could help them in selecting
the best trees to cultivate in their plantations
and thought that from the seeds of any tree
of Hevea brasiliensis they would obtain the
plants they required. Scientific research,
however, has shown that the percentage
of latex yielded by individual trees varies
very greatly in amount, for while some
trees yield only 2% of latex, others yield
as much as 40%. Had the warning note
which was sounded by Kew and by others
been regarded, which was, that seed from
untested trees should not be sown pro-
miscuously, rubber plantations to-day might
have been furnished with a larger proportion
of the best latex -yielding trees than is
now the case.
With regard to Camphor, it is only
recently that it has become known in the
West that there are two varietal forms of
the Camphor tree, both so alike in their
external botanical characters that they can
hardly be separated. One of these yields
the valuable solid camphor on distillation,
the other camphor oil, a product of little
commercial use. Since Camphor can be
cultivated in several British Colonies, seed
was obtained through Kew for growing in
Mauritius, the West Indies and other
Colonies. Unhappily, however, the seed
which was procured emanated from the oil-
producing trees, which were well-known
to the senders, so that, except in a few
isolated cases, there are scarcely any true
Camphor trees in the British Colonies.
Problems of this nature abound in the
realms of economic botany, as for
instance, the exact determination of the
best type of Willow for making cricket bats
which was worked out at Kew, or in the
domain of textiles such as the finding of
the best strains of Cotton, New Zealand
flax, Sisal or other fibre plants, which from
time to time are temptingly brought to the
notice of the prospective investor.
Several forms are known, both of Agave
and Ananas, as members of this society are
well aware, which are of little value for
fibre production, and such are clearly recog-
nisable by their botanical characters. It
is in questions such as these that a botanical
institution like Kew, with all its resources,
can afford so much assistance to industry
if only those concerned in commerce will
seek our aid.
The principal work of the Kew Her-
barium, however, is, as I have said, the
systematic investigation and description of
the floras of the world, and in particular,
those of the British Empire. Owing to our
close connection with India and the Colonies,
vast collections of plants have poured in
from every quarter, and it is the work of
the Herbarium staň to name, preserve and
arrange them so that they may be available
for reference and study.
It is a matter of regret and a serious
handicap to the full measure of our use-
fulness, that, despite additions to our staff,
the influx of new material has ever been
greater than could be absorbed, even with
the most unremitting energy.
Both the Home and Colonial Govern-
ments and the Government of India have
been generous in affording financial assist-
ance to enable us to tell them of the wealth
and potentialities of their floras. But
you will, I feel sure, agree that far more
help is required if Kew is to maintain its
proud position as the premier botanical
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December 28th, 1923. JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ARTS. 96
establishment of the world, when I tell you
that in our stores we still have accumulations
of preserved material, largely from the
Empire, amounting to some 200,000 speci-
mens. This position, which it must be
our earnest endavour to uphold, when
British interests are so immense both in the
domains of pure and applied botany, can
perhaps best be maintained by the generosity
of private benefactors, and should there
by any happy chance be such an one among
my audience, I can assure him that assistance
of this nature would benefit humanity
at large to no small degree. I may mention
here that the great American Institution,
the New York Botanical Garden at Bronx
Park, has received very large sums in the
way of private benefactions, the number and
magnitude of which fill me with envy.
Science never likes to beg, but should
there be anyone anxious to help forward
a great task, I would commend to their
notice the work which, thanks to the
generosity of Charles Darwin, has been
undertaken at Kew. I allude to the Index
Kewenaie , that great register of all the
species of plants, giving their habitats
and references to the place and date of
publication, of which five supplements have
now been published in addition to the four
original volumes produced at Darwin's
expense. I may mention here that we
estimate that the Vlth quinquennial supple-
ment of the Index will contain some 35,000
entries of new species, while in the Vth
supplement, published in 1921, 37,000 new
names were registered. These figures, to-
gether with those I have given of the
number of our herbarium specimens, will
perhaps indicate something of the magni-
tude of the work that is being undertaken
in the Herbarium, and in particular of the
heavy tax on our resources that the prepara-
tion of the Index entails ; a work that is
indispensable to botanists and horticulturists
throughout the world.
I must not omit to mention, however,
that Kew does receive some valuable help
from the Bentham Trustees, who administer
the legacy of that illustrious botanist, Mr.
George Bentham, who left a sum of money
for the purchase of books and specimens
for Kew.
What, however, has been achieved at
the Herbarium in addition to the labours I
have already sketched ? I can best answer
by pointing to the .long rows of the Colonial
and Indian floras, and such ancillary works
as " The Dictionary of Economic Products
of India," and " The Useful Plants of
Nigeria," all of which have been prepared
at Kew.
The proposal that a series of Colonial
floras should be compiled at Kew was made
by Sir William Hooker as long ago as
1863, and it is of interest to compare his
proposals which were made public in the
Annals of Botany for 1902 (p. lxxxiii) with
the results that have so far been accom-
plished.*
♦" The Life of Sir William Jackson Hooker," by Sir
Joseph Dalton Hooker, in the Annals of Botany, Vol. XVI.,
N1. LXIV., Dec., 1902, which gives a vivid account of
Sir William Hooker's work at Kew._ See also Kew Bulletin ,
1905, p. 20.
Colonial and Indian Floras.
Sir W. Hookers proposals. Volumes.
1. Australian Colonies including
Tasmania. 8- Flora Australiensis. 7.
2. South African Colonies. Ю. Flora Capensis.
3. British North America, Pacific
to Atlantic 2- (Not prepared).
4 West Indian Colonies. 2. Flora of the British West Indian Islands. 1. (A new work is now needed.)
5. New Zealand. I- Handbook of the New Zealand Flora. 1
6 Ceylon y 3- Handbook of the Flora of Ceylon. 5 and 1 Ceylon y quarto
volume
of plates.
7 Hongkong Flora Hongkongensis. 1. в' Mauritius and the Seychelles. 1. Йога of Mauritius and the Sey- 1.
chelles. (A new work is now needed.)
9 British Guiana, 2. (Not yet commenced).
10. Honduras. 1- (Not y»t commenced).
11 West African Colonies. 2. Flora of I ropical .Africa. 2.
12 British India.
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96 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ARTS. December 28th, 1923.
In addition to these the following Floras
have already appeared, or are in course of
preparation, and have been prepared wholly
or mainly at Kew : -
1. Materials for the Flora of the
Malay Peninsula. 6 volumes.
2. Flora of the Malay Peninsula. 5 volumes,
(in preparation, 2 vols, issued)
3. Flora of the Upper Gangetic
Plain. (1 volume to complete) о volumes.
4. Flora of the Presidency of
Madras. 5 parts
(under continuation).
5. Flora of the Presidency of
Bombay. 2 volumes.
6. Index Florae Sinensis. 'Л volumes.
7. The Commercial Products of India. 1 volume.
8. The Useful Plants of Nigeria. 4 parts.
9. The Flora of West Africa (in
preparation).
10. Floras of Bermuda, St. Helena,
Ascension, Tristan da Cunha were
published in the Scientific results
of the Challenger Expedition.
11 Sketch of the Forestry of West
Africa (Moloney) 1 volume.
A proposal to prepare a Flora of Trinidad
has been under consideration for some time,
but it has not yet been found possible to
undertake this very desirable piece of work.
In place of Sir William Hooker's proposed
" Flora of the West African Colonies,"
" The Flora of Tropical Africa " has resulted,
and is now nearly complete, comprising
eleven volumes. So greatly has our know-
ledge extended, of the flora of our West
African Colonies, that it has been found
necessary to ask the Governments of our
four West African Colonies, The Gambia,
Sierra Leone, The Gold Coast and Nigeria,
to subsidise the preparation of a " Flora
of West Africa." This proposal, I am happy
to say, has received the approval of the
Secretary of State for the Colonies, and of
the Colonial Governments, and work was
commenced in September last on this new
undertaking. When this new compact Flora
is published, it will, I believe, be possible,
not only for the botanist but for all in-
terested in the vegetation and vast botanical
resources of West Africa, to determine the
plants they meet with, and learn something
of their economic possibilities.
The floras of Trinidad, and the splendid
vegetation of British Guiana and British
Honduras, and, strange as it may seem,
the flora of Canada, still await attention ;
and, as might be expected, the earlier
volumes of the Flora Capensis published
between 1859 and 1865, require to be
almost entirely re -written, so greatly has
our knowledge grown of the vegetation of
South Africa in recent years. Similar
remarks apply to the Floras of Mauritius and
of the West Indies.
Thus, though much has been accomp-
lished, even more remains to be done, and,
as in every other branch of science, it is
not possible to foresee any termination to
our activities, but rather each accession of
new knowledge opens up long vistas and
enlarged spheres of useful and necessary
work.
Not only do we deal in the Herbarium
with the flowering plants and ferns, but
with the mosses, lichens, seaweeds and
fungi of the world as well, and such matters
as the serious Panama disease of bananas,
the coffee leaf disease ( Hemileia ), which
devastated the flourishing coffee plantations
in Ceylon, and other noxious or less harmful
plant diseases from time to time demand
investigation on the part of our scientific
assistants.
Every post brings some enquiry of
interest, and frequently one which neces-
sitates careful and laborious research, or,
on the other hand, it may open out some
possibility of utilising a new economic
product for the benefit of one of our distant
Colonies. •
We are prepared to report upon and
obtain advice with regard to new vegetable
industries, though it may relate to so small
a matter as the supply of West African palm
kernels for carving into coat buttons, or
as to the value of a pithy stem as a material
for a razor strop, on which - before the
days of safety razors, I need hardly say-
Kew reported to a West Indian Government,
or even, quite recently, as to the botanical
identity of the wood of a walking stick,
about which its owner, as we discovered
later, had made a bet !
I must, however, return to the garden
side of Kew in order to illustrate more
fully our close connection with the Colonies
and India.
It was through Kew, as I think it is now
well-known, that the Para rubber industry
of the East was founded, and that the
cultivation of Cinchona in India, Ceylon and
Jamaica came about. This latter enterprise
had been urged by Sir Joseph Banks more
than half a century before.
These two remarkable introductions of
South American economic plants were made
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December 28th. 1923. JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ARTS. 97
possible through the assistance given by
Kew to the two enterprises, for the seeds
of both plants were despatched to Kew
from their native countries (Hevea in 1876,
Cinchona in 1861), and the young plants
which were raised in our greenhouses
were despatched in Wardian cases to the
East, where they now flourish. In the
one case, the successful achievement has
brought very large financial returns, and
in the other, the possibility of sound health
in the tropics to a vast number of people.
I might give an account of many other
projects that Kew has undertaken did
time permit, such as the introduction of
the very useful Teff grass from Abyssinia
to South Africa ; the annual sending of
Mahogany seeds from the West Indies to
India, and the building up there of Mahogany
forests ; the advice and help which Kew
has afforded to the experiment in aff ores tat -
ing the barren tree-less Falkland Islands,
and the sending of seeds and cases of useful
plants to the Islands of Ascension and
St. Helena with the result that Ascension
is now furnished with useful thickets of
trees. Kew has also rendered assistance
which has been of value in setting up the
lucrative Onion - growing enterprise in
Antigua, and in connection with the making
of paper from the " Ginger Lily," Hedychium
coronarium . Then, again, reference must
be made to the sending of Cacao plants to
the Gold Coast since the success of the
Cocoa plantations there is largely due to the
assistance and advice afforded by the Royal
Botanic Gardens.
Interesting stories about many other
economic plants, valuable for their fibre,
for paper making, spices or drugs, or for
their food value, with which Kew has been
intimately concerned, could also be related.
I must, however, pass on to the consideration
of a further sphere of usefulness to which
we attach great importance, and which
has been attended with far-reaching results ;
that is, the work of completing the botanical
and horticultural training of the young
men who come to Kew for a period of two
or three years as Student Gardeners.
In this respect Kew may be regarded as
a University of Horticulture, and perhaps
more particularly of Tropical Horticulture,
since so many of her sons go out to every
part of the Empire to carry on the science
and practice of Horticulture in the Botanic
Gardens and Agricultural Stations in the
Tropics.
That this should be the case is only
natural since in no other Institution in
this country can so much be learned about
the vegetation of the Tropics, and the proper
method of cultivation of tropical economic
and other plants. Men trained in botany
and agriculture in our Universities are no
doubt well equipped in the scientific
principles underlying their subject, buiv
they are perforce sadly handicapped, owing
to their lack of practical knowledge of the
plants which they will meet with in our
Colonies in connection with their work.
With the growing and legitimate demand
for men who have passed through a Uni-
versity on the part of the Colonial Govern-
ments, the men trained at Kew are often
placed in a difficult and unfavourable
position, but I venture to say that the best
of our students will be found, in the long
run, with their practical knowledge added
to the theoretical instruction provided for
them at Kew, to be able to hold their own
in comparison with the men who have had
better opportünities in the way of a course
at a University or at an Agricultural Collego
Neither class of men, I would submit, are
entirely satisfactory for sending out straight
from home to some distant Colony where
they will be confronted with problems with
which they are, to a great extent, unfamiliar,
but now that the Imperial College of Tropical
Agriculture has been so successfully
established in Trinidad, I am convinced that
at last we have the opportunity of completing
the education necessary both for the
University candidate and for the man
trained at Kew, so that they may become
efficient scientific officers qualified to serve
in whichever of our Tropical Colonies or
Dominions their services may be required.
I have recently had occasion to bring this
aspect of the training of scientific officers
for colonial posts to the notice of the Secre-
tary of State for the Colonies, and I hope
that my proposals may meet with His
Grace's approval, and that they may also
be favourably considered by the Governors
and Directors of Agriculture of our Colonies.
The important part that Kew has played
in the past, and I am glad to say is still
maintaining, in sending out her sons to
distant lands in Government service, is,
as I have indicated earlier, in direct con-
tinuity with the policy initiated by Sir Joseph
Banks over a century ago, when Kew men
were sent to take charge öf the Botanic
Gardens in Ceylon, St. Vincent and Trinidad.
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98 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ARTS. December 28th, 1923.
The connection between the Royal Botanic
Gardens, Kew, and the many daughter
Botanic Gardens and Stations overseas -
which have now very generally become the
centres of flourishing Agricultural Depart-
ments - has been of inestimable benefit
both to the Home and to the Colonial In-
stitutions, and has served to weld that link
of union and mutual help and sympathy
which it is so essential to preserve.
Before leaving this portion of my subject,
I may perhaps be allowed to mention
that at the present time among the higher
posts held by Kew men in the Colonies,
one of our former student gardeners is
Director of Agriculture in the Gambia and
another is Commissioner of Lands and
Forests, Sierra Leone. Another is Super-
intendent of the Botanic and Forestry
Department, Hongkong, and the Economic
Botanist, Trinidad, also received his early
training at Kew, while the Superintendents
and Curators of almost every one of our
Tropical Agricultural Stations and Botanic
Gardens have passed through Kew. In the
United States of America it is of interest
to note that Kew -trained men are held in
high esteem. One is now Assistant Director
of the famous Arnold Arboretum, and several
others hold important horticultural appoint-
ments in that country. The value of the
Kew training is further emphasised by the
fact that several of our Scientific Assistants
received their early training in the Gardens,
including the present Assistant Director,
who, before returning to Kew last year, held
important posts in the Gold Coast as
Assistant and Deputy Conservator of Forests
and in Singapore as Assistant Director of
the Botanic Gardens.
I cannot close this account of the work
of the Royal Botanic Gardens without a
brief reference to the building where all the
various activities are centred, namely,
the Director's Office ; a small and un-
pretentious building of great interest from
its historical associations. I believe the
Director of Kew has been compared to a
spider at the centre of his web, and the
comparison is not altogether inept, since
he has to keep in intimate touch with all
the threads of the work in progress in each
of the separate departments, and with all
the important matters raised by corres-
pondents at home and abroad. It is also
his duty, and it is a very pleasant and
interesting side of the Kew work, to keep
himself informed as to the progress of
botanical and agricultural affairs in India,
the Dominions and the Colonies, and to
do whatever may lie in his power to help
forward their various enterprises.
The crowded shelves on the walls of the
Director's room afford some evidence of
the nature of the work, as any visitor to
his office can see, for every folio bears in
large letters on its back the name of
some dependency of the Crown or of a
subdivision of India, or of a Dominion.
In fact, a stranger might well think that
he had inadvertently entered the office of
the President of the Royal Geographical
Society or the room of the Secretary of
State for the Colonies in mistake for the
Director's Office at Kew.
The average daily post bag also reflects
very clearly the Imperial nature of the work
of Kew. Letters and parcels come from
every part of the world, and may relate to
such varied subjects as the possibility of
introducing the mulberry tree to British
Honduras ; the Panama disease of bananas ;
the suitability of Newfoundland lichens for
reindeer food ; the precautions that should be
taken to prevent undue destruction of the
oil palm in West Africa ; the identity of
the seeds in a mixture of chicken food, a
query possibly involving some legal action ;
or as to the botanical identity of a tropical
plant about which all information is withheld
by the senders, who we subsequently find
are interested in the promotion of a company
for its exploitation. In the latter case,
I think the enquirers would be a little
disturbed did they know how much we
had been able to discover about their
plant, bearing some camouflaged name,
both as to its country of origin, chances of
success under cultivation and so on.
There is also the extensive and more purely
scientific correspondence to be attended to
with botanical establishments on the Con-
tinent and in America, Java and the East
as well as with our colleagues in our home
universities and colleges.
Visitors, too, are sometimes almost as
numerous and varied as the letters, for
like them they come from every part of the
world, and serve as a pleasant reminder that
the work of Kew is appreciated throughout
the Empire, and their visits to Kew help to
strengthen that tie of mutual sympathy
and intercourse the value of which we fully
realise. That several members of the staff
have personal acquaintance with most parts
of the world enables Kew to give more useful
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December 2 sth , 1923. JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ARTS. 99
advice and criticism than might otherwise
be possible.
I hope I may have been able to give you
some small idea of what the work of Kew
really is, and that though this work is
pre-eminently scientific, KewT is, nevertheless,
keenly alive to the interests that make
countries prosperous and wealthy. In the
words of Sir William Thiselton-Dyer - which
are, I believe, as true now as when they
were written over forty years ago - Kew
" has itself grown and flourished under its
past and present Chiefs . . . not so
much from its dependence upon their
merits, but rather because the principles of
its administration have been essentially
British and practical.
" It has steadily set itself to do every kind
of public work which is connected with
botanical science.
44 It was never launched with a theoretically
complete equipment and constitution, but
it has slowly earned every advantage that
has been conceded to it, and, as its labours
have been enlarged, so its capacity for their
performance has been increased."
The following testimony, extracted from
a speech by Mr. Joseph Chamberlain in
the House of Commons on August 2nd,
1898, will show how much, in the opinion
of the most famous of Colonial Secretaries,
the Colonies owe to Kew : " I do not think
it is too much to say that at the present time
there are several of our important Colonies
which owe whatever prosperity they possess
to the knowledge and experience of, and
the assistance given by, the authorities at
KewT Gardens. Thousands of letters pass
every year between the authorities at Kew
and the Colonies, and they are able to place
at the services of those Colonies not only
the best advice and experience, but seeds
and samples of economic plants capable of
cultivation in the Colonies."
I have attempted to show how much of
what Kew has become is due to the initiative
and foresight of Sir Joseph Banks and Sir
William Hooker, and I think if it were
desired to place an inscription beneath a
monument to either of these great men,
relating to their work at Kew, the following
verses from the Book of Ecclesiasticus, which
refer to "Wisdom," might very fittingly
be selected : -
4 4 1 came out as a brook from a river, and
as a conduit into a garden.
" I said, I will water my best garden and
will water abundantly my garden bed ;
and lo, my brook became a river, and my
river became a sea."
DISCUSSION.
The Chairman said that they had listened to an
exceedingly interesting and very complete account
of a famous Institution. He supposed that Kew
and perhaps the waxworks in Marylebone Road
were the two best-known places in London, not only
to the provincial, but to the foreigner. He had
often been surprised, while talking to foreigners
in different places, by tlieir knowledge of Kew,
which was the one place that they wanted to come
to England to see. It was no little privilege to be
associated with a Garden such as Kew, and he
entertained a certain envy of the lecturer. Dr.
Hill had told them something of the history of
Kew during the last 150 years. In seeing Kew
to-day one wras sometimes apt to forget the
wonderful services which had been rendered to the
Carden in time past by the pioneers, especially the
two Hookers, father and son ; and there were
many other botanists that one might mention whose
names came to mind. He remembered Sir Joseph
Hooker in one or several of his letters complaining
that the young botanists of his day did not know
their plants, and the speaker was afraid that this
was still true of some of the older botanists. Many
botanical students, while having an intimate
acquaintance with the insides of plants, had only
the slenderest knowledge of their outsides. He
himself had been more or less brought up in that
sort of school. He was not going to complain of
his teachers, because he felt nothing but gratitude
towards most of them ; but it was the fact that at
that time - and he was afraid that the schools were
yet not quite free from the reproach - one learned a
good deal of the microscopic characters of plants
without knowing what the plants themselves looked
like. Students could improve their education at
Kew in that respect. One thing that always struck
him about Kew was that it appealed to every sort
of person, not only botanists, but all men who had
any aesthetic sense (and most people had some).
The botanist himself approached Kew with a sense
of awe, while the ordinary non-botanical person
who went there, probably walked about as if the
place belonged to him. He himself remembered going
to the Director's office - long before the time of the
present Director - in fear and trembling, though
he found when he got into his presence that the
Director was a human being, and indeed his
experience had always been that the Directors of
Kew were essentially human. So long as that state
of affairs continued, the fortunes of Kew might
safely be left in their hands. A great deal had been
heard that evening about the work which Kew had
done and was doing - its variety and utility. But he
thought that Kew might even do a little more than
it was doing, and he hoped that in future it would
develop along new lines of activity. There was
still room for expansion at Kew on the experimental
side, and the best wish one could express for its
future was that it might go on developing in the
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100 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ARTS. December 28th, 1923.
future with the same rapidity as in the past. They
had been told that evening that science never
liked to beg. As a matter of fact, he thought that
the lecturer had begged very nicely, and he would
be very glad - he did not wish to appear as a rival
beggar - if an additional endowment could be
obtained for that wonderful book, the Index
Kewevsis. That was a work to which every
botanist owed a great deal, and to which he turned
very frequently for information, and he would like
to support the appeal which had been so delicately
made that evening by the Director of Kew.
Professor F. W. Oliver, F.R.S., said that the
Chairman had called upon him to speak probably
because he knew that the first half of his life was
spent in the Gardens as the son of an official, and
that he could speak quite freely. He had always
been an admirer of Kew, as well as its critic. His
criticisms, however, he reserved for private
consumption. Nor was he going to indulge in
reminiscences of those early days when he lived in
the Gardens, except to say that his recollections of
fifty years ago were extraordinarily vivid because
Kew to him then was naturally the centre of his
world, as well as the centre of the botanical world.
In the sixties and seventies of the last century the
dominant element in botany was the systematists.
They occupied all the principal positions in the
botanical world, and with them resided the power
of conferring appointments upon others. If at
that time a botanical post was desired one naturally
made friends with the Hookers or their successors.
That state of affairs had gone and could never
return on account of the enormous subdivision and
development of the branches of botanical science.
But in those days the whole botanical world used
to come to Kew and reside for a week or a month or
more on Kew Green, especially in the Long
Vacation. Dozens of the most eminent botanists,
British and foreign, were to be seen there. All this
left an indelible impression on his mind, the more so
because they used to talk quite freely to him, and
say what they thought of Kew. They agreed that
it was a most wonderful place, and then they held
up their hands and said, " But, you know, the
whole thing is simply wasted. Not more than one
per cent, of the resources and material at Kew is
utilised in any way whatever in the advancement
of knowledge." What they meant was that all
the plants that could be grown in the world were
being grown at Kew, but that was all ; the harvest
was rich, but the reapers were few. The other point
he remembered was this, that he and others would
utilise Kew in an illegitimate way - bird-nesting,
for example. Kew had an extraordinary range of
birds and bird-nests, and he learned most of his
ornithology in Kew Gardens. Occasionally he
would use a gun for shooting game birds, sometimes
even out of season ! But one felt that Kew at that
time sadly lacked the element of youth. This
systematic aspect of botany got a little bit upon
one's nerves. One of the most happy episodes in
the development of Kew was the foundation of the
Jodrell Laboratory, to which Dr. Hill alluded, and
particularly the association with it of Dr. Scott.
When the history of botany at the end of last
century and the beginning of the present century
came to be written the work done in the Jodrell
Laboratory connected with Dr. Scott would receive
full justice. His was a most extraordinary output
from one man, and the number of young people
he interested in the subject of botany as a whole
was quite remarkable. Almost every botanist
for the last forty years had passed under the
influence of Dr. Scott, and lasting and extra-
ordinary benefits had resulted to all of them.
The speaker's last point was to suggest that some-
thing in the nature of an entente might come about-
bet ween Kew Gardens and, if not a university,
a sort of department of botany or botanical
institute, which would have the privilege of using
Kew and advancing the knowledge of the subject.
He was not implying any blame to anybody, but
it was perfectly impossible for the officials of a
Garden to succeed in the double duty of administra-
tion and of advancing to the full the knowledge
of the subject. At one time he was almost thinking
of getting up a syndicate to carry out this idea - in
other words, to acquire Gloucester House close by
and convert it under a syndicate into a botanical
institute ; but that never came to anything, and
the building was taken over as a college for the
training of miners and other working-men who
became leaders of labour. Any such development
might not come within the next twenty or thirty
years, but he felt sure that at some time or other
an educational side would develop in connection
with Kew, in the most friendly relations with the
Gardens, and yet not under their authority. Kew
was a Government institution, and it was out of the
question to have an educational body under the
orders of a Government office, although too often
one found that such was the relationship. The
name of Sir Joseph Banks had been mentioned that
evening. Banks was not merely a botanist, he
moved in the great world and knew everybody.
Those who had read the Faringtbn Diaries, lately
published in the Morning Poet , would have noted
with pleasure the frequent appearance of Sir Joseph
Banks, not only in social engagements, but on his
travels, in his illnesses, and at his eatings and wine-
drinkings. The Diaries showed that Banks was
very human, in which respect he resembled the
Directors of later times. Those must have been great
days,' when men were still in touch with the tradition
of Linnaeus, who made the subject of botany more
popular, he supposed, than it had ever been before,
and certainly than it had ever been since. Linnaeus
made certain aspects of botany at once accessible
to common men. There was no more fashionable
pursuit 160 years ago than the study of botany.
Whether those days would ever come back again
or not it was impossible to say ; probably they
would not.
Dr. J. A. Voelcker said that he could not claim,
like the last speaker, to have spent his early days
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December 28th, 1923. JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ARTS. 101
at Kew. He had to speak rather from the point
of view of the ordinary visitor, and as such he
would like to be the medium of expressing the
great indebtedness of the public to those who
directed such a place as Kew. He did not know
what others thought, but he had often remarked, on
his periodical visits, that he always came away
feeling that he had got something for the payment
of his imperial taxes ! Whether people simply
walked round and enjoyed the sight of the plants
and the museums and ended up with tea at the
Pagoda, or whether they went with more serious
intentions, they must always feel, he thought,
that they had got something for being citizens of the
Empire. But for those who knew the subject more
closely there was a much wider sphere of interest at
Kew, and it was very instructive to have heard from
the Director himself an account of the history and
of the present activities embraced under the name
of Kew. If he might be allowed as a layman to
speak from his own experience, he would like to
acknowledge the courtesy and the readiness to help
which resulted from addressing inquiries to Kew.
In his owTi agricultural work he had had from time
to time to refer questions to Kew, and it was almost
unnecessary for. him to say that the officials there
were willing to go to endless trouble in satisfying
the requests of those who applied to them. The
British public did not fully know of this ; they did
not realise that institutions such as Kew were there
for the purpose of affording information to inquirers,
and the number of questions which the obliging
officials there were able to answer was remarkable.
We needed to be reminded that Kew was a national
possession. It was one of the places to which we
had a right to go, and if the public did not use the
stores of information available, the fault was that
of the public and not of Kew. At all events, he
could say for the Directors of Kew Gardens, and
now for the present Director, that they were
always willing and ready to afford information
to those who inquired. He could bear out from his
own experience what Dr. Hill had said with regard
to the influence of Kew in other parts of the
Empire. It had been his lot to travel about in
India, and wherever he went he found a number of
people in constant touch with Kew. The Gardens
at Calcutta, Saharanpur, and elsewhere were in
regular correspondence with Kew. The same
thing obtained in the West Indies and elsewhere.
All this formed part of a vast system for the
gathering together of information which was for the
benefit of science, and which also served commercial
interests. There were a large number of cases in
which the accumulated knowledge of Kew, from
purely scientific sources, had been devoted to the
expansion of commercial interests. Science was not
valued purely for its own sake, but for the extent
also to which it could be used in the general service.
He had been interested to hear of the different
changes that Kew had gone through in its time,
how the original plan was conceived and carried out,
and how it then underwent a period of decadence,
when another institution, the British Museum, came
up and secured the early records of Kew. He did
not know that that was altogether a bad move ;
it was not always a mistake to have two institutions,
one keeping the other up to the mark. At all
events, the old plan had been reverted to, and the
system of having collectors and correspondents all
over the world had been retained, and all who had
listened to the lecture that evening would wish good
success to that work.
Mr. E. Shine said that in the Ministry of
Agriculture he had the pleasure of working with the
Director of Kew. The Director had rather slurred
over, in his paper, the connection with the Ministry
of Agriculture, and he for his part only wished that
the Ministry of Agriculture had the same interesting
dealings with Kew that, he understood, the Foreign
Office, the Colonial Office, and other departments of
Government had. The Ministry of Agriculture's
concern at Kew often related to such dull questions
as to whether perambulators should be permitted
to go into the Gardens, and whether the entrance
fee should be a penny, twopence, or nothing
at all. The Ministry of Agriculture was very
glad to be connected with a department like Kew
Gardens, which, he thought, was always in favour
with the general public. At the Ministry they
were so accustomed to people finding fault with
them on such questions as rabies, foot and mouth
disease, and so on, that it was quite pleasant to
hear everybody exclaim that everything in the
garden was lovely ! So far as the officials at the
Ministry were concerned, their relations with the
Director and officials were always most harmonious,
and they welcomed at the Ministry the privilege of
being associated with them.
The Secretary said that there was one small
point to which he would like to draw attention.
The Director of Kew had referred at the beginning
of his paper to the introduction of the bread-fruit
tree to the West Indies. The speaker merely
wished to point out, as a sort of foot-note to the
paper, that the whole question of the conveyance of
that bread-fruit tree to the West Indies was due to
the work of the Society. Sir Henry Trueman
Wood, in his History of the Society, related how
Sir Joseph Banks, who was a member, took a great
interest in this question, and it was on his suggestion
that a prize was offered with this particular object.
As a result of that prize, Captain Bligh undertook
his expedition on the " Bounty." He failed the
first time, but on his second expedition, in 1793, he
succeeded. On his return he sent in a full report
of the whole affair to the Society, and as a result of
that he was awarded the Gold Medal.
The Chairman felt sure that the andience would
wish to express its hearty thanks to the Director of
Kew. He could only say for himself that although
he had been more or less familiar with Kew for
some time, he had been somewhat ignorant of its
past history, and had not realised the full extent
of its activities until that evening. It would be
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102 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ARTS. December mh, 1923.
a great advantage to many to have this paper in a
form in which it could be readily referred to, and he
was very glad that it was going to be printed in the
Journal. It would be a most valuable paper for
reference.
A vote of thanks was passed unanimously.
Dr. Hill briefly acknowledged the compliment,
and the meeting terminated.
NOTES ON BOOKS.
Life of Sir William White, K.C.B., F.R.S.,
LLD., D.Sc. By Frederick Manning, with an
introduction by The Rt. Hon. Lord George
Hamilton, G.C.S.I., LL.D., D.C.L. London :
John Murray. 1923.
Sir William White died in 1913 at the age of
68, so that it is time for his life to be written, if
it is to be read by any of his contemporaries. Not
very many of them can still survive, and the list
is rapidly diminishing. One of them, Lord George
Hamilton, fortunately is still alive and contributes,
as an introduction to this volume, a warm and
generous appreciation of Sir William's character
and public service. Lord George and Sir William
White were born in the same year. One was
First Lord of the Admiralty when the other was
appointed Director of Naval construction, and the
mutual liking and admiration conceived by each
for the other continued till Sir William's death.
Sir William White's life just synchronised with
the era of change brought about by the introduction
of steam as a motive power, and the substitution
of iron for wood in the construction of war-ships.
The first work on which he was employed as a
dockyard apprentice was the conversion of a
sailing ship into a screw- propelled steamer. When
he resigned his post at the Admiralty, British
war-ships had become the huge swift engines of
destruction which saved the country from invasion
in the great war which began a year after his death.
From the time of Elizabeth till the day of
Trafalgar, there had been no great change in our
ships, and in the half-century which followed
Trafalgar the improvement had been but small.
Now, a single modern line-of-battleship (given,
of course, a sufficient supply of ammunition)
could send to the bottom, herself uninjured, the
great Armada and the English ships which drove
it to destruction, or the combined fleets which
fought at Trafalgar.
It is not, of course, suggested that these great
changes were in any sense due to Sir William
White. Things would have taken the same
course had he never lived, and even when they
were modified by individual direction, he was only
one of many whose influence affected the direction
of change and its character ; but he took his full
share of the work. To call him " the greatest
naval architect this world has ever seen," is to
make rather a strong statement, but certainly
among his contemporaries he had few, if any,
equals, and certainly no superior.
He started in life as a dockyard apprentice,
after a discussion, it would appear, between some
of his friends as to whether he should not be
trained for the Baptist Ministry. Fortunately,
alike for the boy and for the public service, the
wiser counsel prevailed and he entered the Royal
dockyard at Devonport in 1859. Not very long after
his apprenticeship (in 1869), the School of Naval
Architecture was founded at South Kensington and
White was one of the candidates selected from the
various dockyards. He passed at the head of the
list in the competitive examination and remained
at the school till he entered the construction
department of the Admiralty in 1870. In the
same year the School was merged in the Royal
Naval College at Greenwich, and White, who had
become Instructor of Naval Architecture at the
school, became one of the Lecturers at the College.
At the Admiralty he remained till 1883 holding
various appointments, the highest being that of
Chief Constructor. In that year he received an
offer from Sir William Armstrong which led to his
employment by the great Elswick firm. With
them he remained till 1885, when, on the resignation
of Sir Nathaniel Barnaby, he was recalled to the
Admiralty as Director of Naval Construction.
White's acceptance of this post was a distinctly
patriotic act, for in spite of its high distinction, its
emoluments were less than he was receiving, and
would have received at Elswick. If he had
remained at Armstrongs he would certainly have
died a much richer, and probably a happier man.
The service of a great commercial firm is free from
many of the drawbacks of service under superiors
whose actions and decisions must of necessity be
influenced very largely by political considerations ;
and besides discharging the duties of a difficult
post, he had to meet the parliamentary criticism of a
former holder of the same office, neither an easy
nor an agreeable task.
The policy of the Admiralty, and the work
of its construction department were the subject
of vigorous, even violent, controversy, alike
Parliamentary and professional. The Director
of Naval construction was not only permitted, but
expected to take his part in it. This White did with
much effect, both at the professional associations,
such as the Institutions of Naval Architects and of
Civil Engineers, and before more popular audiences
in his lectures and addresses at the Society of
Arts, and the British Association.
He held his office till 1902, when he resigned.
His resignation, partly due to failing health, was
precipitated by a blunder made in the construction
of a Royal Yacht, for which he was nominally
though not actually, responsible. The work which
he carried out during his 17 years' tenure of office is
described in full detail by Mr. Manning, and the
record is a long and honourable one.
When he left the Admiralty he was disposed to
retire entirely from further work, but the advice and
solicitations of several warm friends induced him
as his health recovered, to resume. He became
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