PREFACE.
A VARIETY of circumstances have concurred, since the publication of the Hortus
Kewensis, by which the number of curious plants, cultivated in the Royal Gardens at
Kevv, have received material increase; Mr. Masson, who has travelled as a Botanist, at his
Majesty's expense, for twenty-five years, was never so fortunate in furnishing abundance
of fresh seeds and living plants, as during his last mission to the Cape of Good Hope.
The settlement of a colony on the coast of New South Wales has opened to us a fresh
source of botanical wealth, in a climate nearly congenial to our own; and of this a large
share has been transmitted to Kew, by Arthur Philip, Esq. the Governor. William Bligh,
Esq. Commander of his Majesty's ship Providence, who was sent to the South Seas for
the purpose of carrying the Bread-fruit from thence to the British colonics in the West
Indies, and had orders to replace such of the useful plants, as might die during the
passage, or be deposited in the places of their destination, by such curious plants as
the gardeners attending the expedition could procure, has also been enabled to place
in Kew Gardens some hundreds of species, natives of the East or of the West Indies,
which had never before been seen in Europe.
No events, however, have so materially tended to the increase of the Royal Collection,
as that decided preference which our most gracious Queen has of late condescended to
bestow upon the science of Botany, and the rapid progress her Majesty and the Princesses,
her daughters, have made in the most difficult parts of that pleasing study; the
nobility and gentry of England have, since this was known, more than ever attached
themselves to a pursuit, honoured by the interesting patronage of their beloved Queen;
individuals have vied with each other in presenting to Kew Garden such plants as
they thought likely to make an acceptable addition to the Collection: Commanders of
ships have employed the leisure of their homeward bound passages in taking care of the
vegetable produce of the climates they had visited, anxious to furnish, on their return,
any degree of increase to her Majesty's amusements. The Directors of the East India
and of the Sierra Leone Companies have forwarded to Kew such plants as their servants