ocr: EARTH ALMANAC Preserving Plants- - Putting Money in a British Seed Bank Within 50 years a fourth of carth's 250,000 flower- ing plant species could vanish because of habitat lass, some scientists predict. To preserve them, the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew has since 1974 oper- ated a seed bank now containing more than 4,000 species, like these in airtight containers cooled to minus 4F (right). Kew's collec- tors, such as Hew Prendergast in the Central African Re- public (lett), work worldwide. The goal: to store: sam- ples of most of the UKs 1,600 flower- ing plants by the year 2000 and 25,000 ...
