The National Herbarium

Abstract

THERE is no inconsistency between Sir W. Hooker's statement, quoted by Mr. Carruthers, that “till 1853 our garden was utterly destitute” of an herbarium and library, and mine that in the Aitons' time there was a large herbarium here, kept up for naming the garden collections. Sir W. Hooker of course referred to the period during which the gardens had been public property. The herbarium in question was broken up when Kew ceased to be a private establishment. The words quoted by Mr. Carruthers ought hardly in fairness to be detached from the context. Sir W. Hooker's meaning was, of course, that the gardens, as a public department, possessed, till 1853, no official herbarium or library. He goes on to speak of his own private ones, by means of which the work of the garden had been carried on ever since he became director, and which, having at his death been purchased by the Government, form, with those presented by Mr. Bentham and others, the foundation of the present collections.