418 THE GARDENER. [Sept. 



invariably happen : first, that a great many of the cut-flowers become scorched up 

 ere they can be examined by the judges ; and, secondly, the company throng 

 the tents, to the great inconvenience of the judges. 



The luncheon to the judges and exhibitors went the way of many other things 

 at the meeting — cold, lifeless, and uninteresting. If it is to be taken as represen- 

 tative of the "less pretentious dinner" advocated by the Gardeners' Chronicle, 

 by all means let us have in the future the warmth, life, and vivacity of the meet- 

 ing at Leicester last year. Not the best chairman that could have been selected 

 from the Council presided ; and excepting that there was something to eat and 

 drink, the whole affair was a miserable abortion. The chairman made an attempt 

 to propose a toast ; scarcely any one knew the nature of it, and no one the pur- 

 port of the few hurried words in which he introduced it. Such a gathering as 

 that might have been turned to practical account by the Council, but the mem- 

 bers of that body present appeared to treat it as a bore. They displayed no gener- 

 ous sympathies towards the important body of horticulturists there met together. 

 The meeting divided into small coteries, and the members of the Council soon 

 disappeared. In the evening there was a gathering in the same tent, under the 

 presidency of W. B. S. Williams, and it w^ould have been well if some of the 

 members of the Council could have been present to hear what was thought of and 

 expressed regarding the proceedings of that day. The chairman struck a key- 

 note that gave harmony to the utterances of each speaker when he asserted that 

 the experience of that day proved most conclusively that the Royal Horticultural 

 Society should no longer link itself to the Agricultural Society in its visits to the 

 provinces, but go into them independently, and stand or fall by its own merits. 

 No one regarded the Agricultural Society as the enemy of the Horticultural So- 

 ciety, but simply that on these occasions it was completely overshadowed by it, 

 and pushed into a remote corner. The Agricultural Society did not require the 

 companionship of the Horticultural Society ; in fact, would rather be without it. 

 Let the Horticultural Society be courageous, and go to the provinces on a purely 

 independent footing ; and if that were necessary, go in an entirely opposite direc- 

 tion to that taken by the Agriculturists, and he (the Chairman) prophesied that 

 it would meet with abundant success, be much more warmly received by undi- 

 vided sympathies, and be generously supported. That no official of the Royal 

 Horticultural Society was present was severely commented on, as it was con- 

 sidered that hopes had been held out by the Society that its hospitalities should 

 have been more decisively expressed. Concurrently with this, its neglect of the 

 Chiswick gardens was vehemently reprehended, as in its present condition it 

 affords few inducements to practical horticulturists from the country to visit it 

 when in London. 



It may be that the Council of the Royal Horticultural Society cares but little 

 for such opinions as these. That they are extensively held is beyond doubt. No 

 one thinks that that body cares for practical horticulture as such ; they see and 

 care only for the show and tinsel they can gather about it, and the aristocratic 

 prestige resulting therefrom. But outside this charmed circle are hundreds of 

 earnest able men who are hourly realising the conclusion, that shows and not 

 realities are inevitable corollaries of such a state of things. It is devoutly to be 

 hoped that something nobler and better will be presently inaugurated in place of 

 the mere outside show too much presented to the Horticultural world at the pre- 

 sent day. We may be nearer to this, however, than some wot of : this is certain, 

 that we will do our utmost to aid this revolution ; and when it bursts upon us, if 

 only partially at first, give it our earnest support. 



