This volume traces the evolution over more than two centuries of Kew's historic landscape, which began with two private royal gardens and expanded through the work of some of our most distinguished garden designers, including Charles Bridgeman, 'Capability' Brown and W. A. Nesfield. Eminent architects also contributed - men such as William Kent, Sir William Chambers, James Wyatt and Decimus Burton.

Some thirty-nine listed buildings have survived, Kew Palace, the Pagoda, the Palm House and the Temperate House being the best known. All these, together with the latest additions to Kew's architectural heritage - the Princess of Wales Conservatory and the Banks Centre for Economic Botany - are illustrated and described.

The principal figures in Kew's fascinating history also make their appearance in this narrative: Queen Caroline, her son Frederick Prince of Wales, Princess Augusta, his wife, George III and other members of the Royal Family; Sir Joseph Banks, who organised the first worldwide plant-collecting expeditions; Sir William Hooker and his son, Sir Joseph, who laid the foundations of the present Botanic Gardens; and successive directors who formulated policy and supervised physical improvements.

Kew played a pivotal role in the development of the natural resources of the British Empire, and its part in the introduction of commercial crops to the colonies, its compilation of colonial floras, and its collaboration with overseas botanical gardens are all examined, as is its establishment as an international scientific institution in the fields of plant taxonomy, cytogenetics seed physiology and biochemistry.

Previous accounts of Kew have relied almost entirely on printed sources. The present volume makes extensive use of archives in many repositories to trace not only Kew's history but also the research activities which support modern Kew's primary objective: "the better management of the Earth's environment by increasing knowledge and understanding of the plant kingdom."