The Royal
Botanic Gardens, are extensive gardens and
botanical glasshouses located in southwest London, England. It
is an internationally important
botanical research and education institution. The present size of the
gardens is 120 hectares (300 acres).Kew Gardens originated in the exotic garden at Kew Park formed by Lord Capel of Tewkesbury. It was enlarged and extended by Princess Augusta. In 1840 the gardens were adopted as a national botanical garden. Under Kew''s director, William Hooker. In July 2003, the kew gardens were declared by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites.
The Palm House at Royal Botanic Gardens was built between 1844 and 1848, and was the first large-scale structural use of wrought iron. The Temperate house, which is twice as large as the Palm House, followed later in the 19th century. It is now the largest Victorian glasshouse in existence.
Kew garden has a seedbank,herbarium, a temperature house and excellent library. The library and archives at Kew are one of the largest botanical collections in the world, with over half a million items, including books, botanical illustrations, photographs, letters and manuscripts, periodicals, and maps.