234 TEE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



give him time to prepare for it ; it will indicate the state of the weather 

 for the next week, the next fortnight, or even the next month, when he 

 has acquired experience of its movements ; and if it only enables him to 

 choose his work for the da)-, it does enough to give it place as a necessary 

 adjunct to the pursuit of horticulture. If any of our friends act upon 

 this suggestion, we advise them to have nothing to do with fancy instru- 

 ments, or with instruments from questionable dealers. The old-fashioned 

 clock-face barometers are base deceivers, and among the thermometers of 

 pretension not more than thirty per cent, are worthy of house-room. 

 Nevertheless, faithfully-graduated instruments are now to be obtained at 

 very moderate prices, and every local society ought to make a selection of 

 a few to distribute at every exhibition. 



Two members of a floiicultural society submit to us a case for our advice 

 thereon. They are evidently not aware that, to give an opinion, much 

 less advice, it is necessary to hear both sides. Perhaps their own strong 

 sense of what is right, and their conviction that the other side must 

 go by default, suffices them ; but it would be unfair, perhaps unkind, if 

 we were to pronounce decisively on an ex parte statement. Now we do 

 not want to hear what the other side has to say, nor do we intend to enter 

 minutely into the case submitted ; but a few words of general import may 

 not be out of place, for offences will come, and as societies multiply there 

 will be the more opportunities for human failings to make themselves 

 manifest. The twisting of rules for the promotion of party interests, or 

 the predominance of a clique, generally ends in the secession of members 

 who cannot endure to be made tools of, and are not sufficiently pugnacious 

 to fight it out. But when a man determines to take his departure in dis- 

 gust, he should first ask himself whether he is yielding to his own temper 

 or to a proper sense of dignity and right. In such matters we are apt to 

 humour our own whims, and call it " duty;" whereas, if a society is projected 

 to accomplish a certain good, duty demands of us to stand by in its de- 

 fence, not to abandon it to those whose chief desire is to triumph, and no 

 more. In the case before us, the rules appear to be at fault in this re- 

 spect, that it is not definitely laid down when or how the officers are to be 

 elected. The absence of such a rule leaves the door open for turning out 

 Mr. A. and electing Mr. B. at any time, if there are rival cliques at work; 

 but if it be a distinct rule that officers are to be elected at general or spe- 

 cial meetings, after a certain length of time has elapsed to give the mem- 

 bers notice of a vacancy, or submit the names of candidates, there it is in 

 black and white, and elections conducted in any other way are null and 

 void. Then it appears to be the practice in some places to admit strangers 

 ad. lib., and allow them to speak and vote on the assumption that they 

 have come there to offer themselves and their subscriptions in member- 

 ship. Such loose work is sure to fall to pieces. As a rule, the committee 

 of a society should consist of a fixed proportion of amateurs, gardeners, 

 and cottagers, in order that all interests may be represented, and it should 

 be the fixed determination of a committee so constituted to work together 

 in harmony, with the Scriptural precept before them, " Each esteem the 

 other better than himself." But suppose craft creeps in, are the honest 

 men to fly ? That is just what craft would rejoice at. Honest men are 

 always objectionable in the eyes of rogues, but that is no reason why the 



