Botanical Garden Gallery

The Kew Gardens Question

The Kew Gardens Question. This political cartoon was published in 1878 as part of the ongoing debate as to whether the public should be allowed into the gardens in the mornings, before 1pm. Officially, only botanist and botanical artists were allowed morning access, with the Director's permission. The Kew Gardens Public Rights Defence Association was set up and successfully campaigned against this. The author of the article accompanying this cartoon smuggled himself into a morning session at the Gardens and claimed that those eminent botanists inside were mostly fast asleep in garden chairs and other gentlemen were "engaged in testing the effects of cigar smoke on open-air evergreens."

© RBG KEW

Kew Green, Richmond, at the end of the August Bank Holiday, 1926

Kew Green, Richmond, at the end of the August Bank Holiday celebrations, 1926. William Dallimore, Keeper of the Museums of Economic Botany, Kew Gardens, described a Bank Holiday in the 1890's, writing that the visitors enjoyed themselves "seriously enough as long as they were within the Gardens, but... as the Gardens were cleared, they remained on Kew Green for two or three hours and a large kiss-in-the-ring was formed to which all comers were welcome, and the fun became fast and furious." Stalls on the Green sold cockles, cakes, tea and lemonade, and fortunes were told for a penny a time

© RBG KEW

Amorphophallus titanum flowering, 1901

The Titan arum, Amorphophallus titanum is known as the corpse flower in its native Indonesia because of the rancid smell, described by Curtis's Botanical magazine as a mixture of rotten fish and burnt sugar, which it emits as it flowers. It caused a sensation when it first bloomed at Kew in June 1889; the odour attracted "many bluebottle flies" and visitors were greatly disturbed by the smell. The artist Matilda Smith, who recorded the first flowering endured many hours painting it and consequently felt ill. The inflorescence can grow to more than 2.5m and is surrounded by a single purple leaf. These photographs were taken over a four-day period during a later blooming in 1901

© RBG KEW