For most of its 200-year history Kew has been linked to botanical endeavours all around the globe. Still, perhaps, the most famous of them ended in the mutiny on the Bounty in 1789 (Hepper 1982, 1989). Here I hope to show that, despite their continuing interests overseas, the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew and Wakehurst Place (in Sussex) are also closely involved with research and conservation of the UK flora.