Kew Gardens

Kew Gardens (ky), Kew, Surrey, S England, on the Thames just W of London; Royal Botanic Gardens is the official name. The gardens were founded by the dowager princess of Wales in 1761 and consisted of about 9 acres (3.6 hectares). In 1841 they were presented to the nation as a royal gift. They now cover 288 acres (117 hectares) and contain thousands of species of plants, four museums, and laboratories and hothouses. The Chinese Pagoda, c.165 ft (50 m) high, was designed by William Chambers in 1761; it is still a famous landmark. Near the main entrance is Kew Palace, a red-brick mansion, once the home of George III and Queen Charlotte. In 1965 the Royal Botanic Gardens leased Wakehurst Place, Ardingly, West Sussex, an estate dating to the 13th cent. that is the site of a Tudor mansion and grounds landscaped with fine collections of temperate trees and shrubs. The Millennium Seed Bank, a modern facility storing hundreds of millions of seeds from around the world, is also located at Wakehurst Place.

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Kew Gardens

 officially Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Botanic garden located at Kew, site of a former royal estate in the London borough of Richmond upon Thames. In 1759 Augusta, dowager princess of Wales and mother of George III, laid out a portion of her estate as a botanic garden. It became an eminent scientific institution under the unofficial directorship of Joseph Banks. In 1840 the gardens were donated to the nation. Under Sir William Jackson Hooker (1785–1865), they became the world's leading botanical institution. Today they are home to 50,000 different types of plants, a herbarium of more than 5 million dried specimens, and a library of more than 130,000 volumes. The three museums at Kew are devoted largely to economic plant products and a laboratory of plant genetics and classification.