KEW GARDENS

Northern Advocate, 3 February 1928, Page 3

KEW GARDENS

WORLD’S BOTANIC CENTRE

DR. A. W. HILL GIVES THEIR HISTORY.

Dr. A. W. Hill, Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, has arrived in Wellington from the South Island in continuation of a tour he is making of the Dominions in order to study their botanical activities, the Empire Marketing Board having made a grant to Kew in the interests of the expansion of oversea trade and industries.

Dr Hill’s journey so far has included the Australian States, excepting Queensland, which will be visited before he returns to England. This is Dr. Hill’s first visit to these seas, and is the first occaion on which a director or sonicr officer of Kew has gone abroad from the Royal Gardens.

NEW ZEALAND’S SPECIAL INTEREST.

Dr. Hill gave a “Dominion” representative an account of the great gardens at Kew, which are regarded today as the world’s botanical centre. They had, ho said, a special interest to New Zealanders, as they were very early associated with the name of Sir Joseph Banks, the naturalist to Captain Cook’s first expedition, after whom Banks Peninsula is named. The Kew Gardens, Dr. Hill stated, originated in the exotic garden formed by Lord Capel, and were greatly extended by Princess Augusta in 1760, after the death of her husband, Frederick, Prince of Wales, the ; princess then taking up gardening as a hobby. In 1772 Sir Joseph Banks was appointed botanical adviser to George 111, and under his guidance great advances were made. Many of the trees and plants planted over 150 years ago were under cultivation to this day. At the death of Princess Augusta, George 111 inherited Kew, and with it some adjoining gardens also belonging to the Royal Family, and the gardens, appropriately named “The Royal Gardens.” continued their flourishing career. Dr Hill added that the gardens were “royal” in the highest sense of the terra. A GARDEN OF 300 4CEE.S. Dr Hill said that the gardens covered about 300 acres, the soil of which was yellow sand, almost the poorest soil on earth for a garden of such a kind. But. behind the scenes, apart from actual gardening, was an organisation for the study and investigation of scientific and Botanical problems of which the world at large knew nothing. There was also a huge herbarium with thousands of specimens, and this was accounted the largest in rhe world. The collections of flora had been gleaned from all corners of the Empire, and the world at large. There was a botanical library containing over 40,000 volumes, which was the most comprehensive in the world/ The staff consisted of about thirty botanists and scientific workers, “We can safely say now that Kew, as it was in the past, is competent to deal with any problem of botanical importance that might come along,” said Dr Hill. In 1841 the Gardens wore adopted as a national establishment.-; Sir Joseph Banks induced the King to send Kew men to the ends of the world to Collect specimens of flora, which wore transported to London, and planted at Kew. Some of the plants brought from Cape Colony in 1780 were still in the gardens. The Kew collection of plants became noted in their variety and value, and became finally established as a recognised world centre of botanical enterprise, and the source of hundreds of similar reserves. New Zealand joined the widespread movement, every mem-’ bor of which acknowledged the same parental institution, Later on the authorities of the gardens distributed plants, and flora, mostly of a commercial nature, such as cocoa, coffee, cotton, tea, and rubber, amongst various colonics and countries. MARKETING BOARD’S GRANT. In 1820 with the deaths of George til. and Sir Joseph Banks, a loan period ensued, as the two succeeding sovereigns showed little interest in horticulture, But when Queen Victoria came to the throne, following the appointment of Sir William Hooker, Kew once more attained its former importance, and had never lost its pre-eminence. Dr Hill further mentioned that the Empire Marketing Board’s grant amounted to £4OOO a year for five years, which was sufficient to allow for the appointment of an assistant director, leaving one official free to travel round investigating economic and general botanical problems as they occurred. British Guiana was the first country visited under the scheme. Another man had been dent to Malay (States to study banana disease, while another had gone 1 o Java, Ceylon and Singapore. Continuing, Dr Hill declared that many colonics owed their present prosperity to Kew’s operations. One -of the latest accomplishments was the introduction of ehaulmoogra oil into colonies and islands subject to the ravages of leprosy. It was hoped that this work would prove as successful as that which had resulted in 1860 in the distribution of quinine. ’ His official work at Home lay so much with Empire and world problems and conditions that the pastime of gardening and practical horticulture did not figure very largely in j : his life.

“Perhaps,” concluded Dr Hill, “all these lours may not produce any immediate tangible results from the monetary point of view, but I am convinced that some benefit wall accrue. Our practice at Kew is to be always on the lookout for something to do, and someone to help. ’ ’