[MUSIC PLAYING]
Surrounded by the red roofs of Londoner's homes
is Kew Gardens.
It's a world garden for in it grow
flowers and shrubs and trees from every country
in the world.
It's also a playground where Londoners,
seeking a moment of release from ward work,
may rest while their children play.
They come to Kew in early spring when yellow daffodils bring
thoughts of summer sunshine.
They come to Kew in the bright light of May
when the cherry blossom is falling.
And when Japanese cherry and English apple are gone,
like blue sea waves, the bluebells flow
through the woods, then English spring is at its height.
They come to see the flowers from mountain peaks, flowers
from the topless Himalayas, the Rockies, the Andes,
and the Alps.
Flowers come down from the roof of the world
to decorate the Rock Garden.
In the hothouses, the air is heated and continually
sprayed with water until is heavy with moisture.
And here is to be seen a gallery of nature's most
exotic creations from tropic swamp and jungle.
The struggle for survival in the teeming life of the tropics
has produced plants with ingenious devices
for protection and attack.
There are plants that live by extracting nitrogen
from insects instead of from the soil.
There's a scented sticky juice of these has.
Flies are attracted by the scent and caught.
If insects touch the centre of that leaf,
the plant's digestive juices extract the nitrogen.
If an animal touches this mimosa,
or if heat is brought near it, it pretends to die.
Then there are plants which grow in the desert.
They're ordinary plants, but they've
learned to store food in their fishy leaves
to last them through long periods of drought.
Sometimes a leaf is covered with fur to reduce evaporation.
Sometimes the food is stored in the stems
and the leaves disappear or become prickles,
but always they modify their shape
as they try to reduce the surface of skin
exposed to the sun.
Now the shape, which mathematically
exposes the least surface is the sphere.
Here from South Africa is the perfect cactus--
a small round ball.
Yet these weird plants produce lovely flowers.
For like all plants, they attract the bees and insects,
which pollinate them, by means of perfume and bright colour.
And while the people sit beneath the trees and the clouds drift
by, the real work of Kew is going on behind the scenes.
In this cabin, it was kept the private flower collection
of Sir William Hooker, who in 1841 was invited to organise
Kew as a centre for the study of the world's botany.
Today, after 100 years, 10 great floors of specimen cases
now form the Herbarium.
And Kew has become the great centre for naming
and classification of the world's plants.
In this collection, there are 6 or 7 million specimens.
Parcels of specimens arrive every week
from scientific workers and collectors all over the world.
After sorting, they're passed to the mounting
staff who gum or stitch them to these stiff paper mounts.
They are then ready to be examined, classified,
and added to the collection.
Now, many of these specimens have
been sent by botanists from other institutions
abroad to have their names checked and confirmed
by the Kew staff.
Mr. Cotton, Keeper of the Herbarium,
is tracing the identity of the specimen on the table.
It is from Brazil.
Many features must be checked.
The size, shape, and texture of the
leaves, but above all, the structure of the flower
and the nature of the fruit.
When all these features agree with those of an authentically
named specimen and with descriptions and reference
books, then the identification is complete.
The herbarium renders another service to world botany.
A diseased bamboo from South America is being examined.
Microscopic drawings are made of the fungus.
These will be compared with drawings and descriptions
in reference books.
And so the disease may be diagnosed,
and perhaps a crop saved from destruction.
Out of all the specimens submitted to cure,
100 or more new species may be found each year--
new plants that have never been seen before.
Some of these are grown from seeds at Kew
and are painted for reproduction of the botanical journals,
which keep botanists in touch with each other's work
all over the world.
Now, perhaps you think this work is too academic
to have a practical value.
Well, millions may benefit one day from the fact
that Kew is experimenting with this red flower.
It's a type of wild banana from New Guinea.
Grew over cultivation, banana plantations
everywhere are losing their powers of resistance
to disease.
Kew hopes by crossing the plantation banana
with the wild banana to produce seedlings which
will combine the qualities of the commercial banana
with the disease resistance of the wild type.
If this can be done, the threat to plantations
will have been removed.
This type of is a branch of what is called "economic botany".
At Kew, it's controlled by Sir Geoffrey Evans.
Other experiments he is carrying out
are aimed at improving the quality and yield
of West African cocoa.
Buds are cut from selected plants
imported from Central America where this plant is a native.
Then a seedling of the West African stock, the stock which
is to be improved, is taken and an incision cut in its stem.
Into this incision is fitted the American bud.
It's tied up with bass and the American bud,
with its better quality and yield,
grows on the African stock.
A few dozen such plants form a basis
for improving all the cocoa plantations of West Africa.
So from Kew go out the cuttings which
will improve plantation crops in every country--
plantations of cocoa, banana, vegetable oils, varnishes,
and medicinal herbs.
And these crops will be improved for the benefit
of all the world.
The work goes on in war as in peace for Kew
looks ahead and works for the people of the future.