Day 2–Monday, May 18, 2009
The Gardens of England Tour: May 16 – 24, 2009

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For additional information call (314) 577-9500 or e-mail karen.trigg@mobot.org.

Breakfast is included at the hotel.

Today’s itinerary is devoted exclusively to visiting the famous Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, the most complete public gardens in the world.  Kew’s reputation was first established by Sir Joseph Banks, the British naturalist and plant hunter, who worked here in the late 18th century. In 1841, the former royal gardens were given to the nation and now display about 40,000 different kinds of plants. Kew is also a center of scholarly research in horticulture and botany.

The Herbarium at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, is one of the world's largest and houses an encyclopaedic collection of over six million specimens of vascular plants and fungi from every country in the world. They maintain databases on plant names, taxonomic literature, economic botany, plants for arid lands, and on plant groups of special economic and conservation value.

Lunch will be provided at Kew.

After the visit to Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, return to the Rubens Hotel. Dinner and the rest of the evening are at leisure to relax or check out the sights of London.