Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 50.djvu/192

178 of pleasure parks, while only a small number are organized on the broader basis of the needs of the branches of botanic science. Thirty-six of these institutions are located in Germany, twenty-three



in Italy, twenty-two in France, thirteen in Austria-Hungary, twelve in Great Britain and Ireland, and ten in the United States.

One of the most widely known is the Royal Botanic Garden at Kew, located on the south bank of the Thames, six miles from Hyde Park. The beginning of the Kew Gardens may be dated from the formation of the exotic gardens of Lord Capel in 1759. After a long series of changes in ownership and purpose, additions and alterations in plan, the gardens were transferred from a private possession of the crown to a national institution in 1840, with Sir William Hooker as the first director. About two hundred and seventy acres are included, of which seventy are planted as a botanic garden and the remainder as an arboretum and public park. Besides the large number of well-planned conservatories, greenhouses, museums, and other buildings, it contains a number of structures which reflect somewhat of the varied history of the institution. The main palm house is three hundred and sixty-two feet in length, with a central dome seventy feet in height (Plate IV), and the temperate house has a total length of five hundred and eighty feet, covering an area of an acre and a half of ground. In addition, the garden contains fourteen smaller glass houses. The herbarium and library, which occupy the old