THE FLORAL WOELD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



31 



At a meeting of the Council of tlie Horticultural Society, held on the 12th of 

 January, it was determined that the house, 21, Eegent Street, should be sold forth- 

 with, and that tlie garden at Chiswick should be retained. This step will tend to 

 relieve the Society of some of the weight of its embarrassments ; but unfortunately, 

 in their zeal for economy, they have determined to sacrifice with the house the mag- 

 nificent library, which, as to its horticultural and botanical contents, is unequalled in 

 this country. Tlie sale of the house will, in rent and other expenses, effect a saving 

 of £G00 a-year to the Society's funds ; but the library is valued at only £1000, so that 

 parting with it, even if it realizes its full estimated value, will prove but a saving of 

 £50 a-year, at least taking the capital of the library at five per cent, per annum. 



The Fruit Committee of the Horticultural Society will meet on Tuesday, February 

 1st, to award ^jrizes of 20*. and 10*. each for Easter Beurre Pears, and again on Tues- 

 day, March 1st, to give prizes of the same amounts for Beurre Eance Pears. At the 

 meeting of the 11th of January, the prizes for winter Nelis Pears were awarded as 

 follows :— 1st, Mr. Cox, F.H.S., gardener to N. Wells, Esq., Penshurst ; 2nd, Mr. 

 A. Ingram, gardener to J. J. Blandy, Esq., Reading. — The Horticultural Society of 

 Edinburgh have announced two exhibitions for the coming season, namely, Saturday, 

 June 4, aud September 10, both to take place at the Gardens, Broughton Park. — Tlie 

 Scottish Pansy Society will hold its annual meeting at the same place on the 4th of 

 June. — The National ]?loricultural Society, 21, Regent Street, London, invite raisers of 

 seedling flowers, nurserymen, and others, to give small special prizes for collections of 

 their favourite flowers, to be exhibited at the ordinary meeting of the Society during 

 the present year. Communications are to be made to Mr. R. Dean, the secretai*y. — 

 The only exhibitions at pi'esent announced, besides those named above and in our last 

 month's notes, are the following : — Royal Botanic, May 25, June 15, July 6 ; Bath, 

 May 13, September 9 ; Chelteuham, May 4, June 8, September 7. — Crystal Palace, 

 May 18, June 8, September 7 and 8 ; Chrysanthemum Show, Nov. 9 and 10. — On the 

 3rd of this month the British Pomological Society will meet at St. James's Hall, to 

 award prizes for Late Dessert Pears, open to growers only. — At a meeting of the Gar- 

 deners' Benevolent Institution, held January 11, WiUiam Baillie, WiUiam Dungate, 

 and Sarah Ayres were elected pensioners. 



THE EOSE ANNUAL. 



BY ME. PATJX. 



Division of labour is the secret of excel- 

 lence in every department of art and 

 science, as much as in the operations of 

 the work-room. A man of any pretence 

 to culture is expected, in these days, to 

 have a general knowledge of every depart- 

 ment of human study, from theology to 

 the manufacture of tenpenny nails ; but he 

 is also expected to have a special and com- 

 plete knowledge of some particular subject, 

 and when we meet with a bright character 

 in society, our first thought about him 

 (if tre are also bright) is to ascertain 

 which way his mindhas a tendency to range 

 most freely. He knows everything, but 

 what is he master of? Mathematics, 

 botany, zoology, chemistry ? Is he clever 

 in turning, and quite happy at the lathe ? 

 Is he a devoted student of English, or 

 Italian, or classic poetry ? or does he put 

 aside all his general knowledge as soon as 

 he enters a garden, and there engage him- 

 self with those minute particulars which 

 betray the enthusiastic horticulturist ? 

 Certain it is, that as each department of 



art and science is more minutely investi- 

 gated, its subdivisions get narrowed ; and 

 modern literature partakes of this. Sub- 

 jects that a few years since would have 

 been dismissed in a chapter, now require 

 volumes, and authors take some minor 

 branch of a subject and elevate that to a 

 primary importance, and thus the minutest 

 details are analyzed and innumerable 

 sources of knowledge are discovered, of 

 which the learned of past ages did not so 

 much as dream. We knew a mounter of 

 microscopic objects who devoted his whole 

 time for years to various modes of mount- 

 ing for examination of one single species of 

 parasitic insect, which we will not name, 

 though we may go so far as to say it was 

 neither a flea nor a bug — the mention of 

 those is, perhaps, allowable ; and we also 

 knew a botanist who spent twenty-five 

 years in the study of one tribe of plants, 

 the GramincB, and then avowed he was 

 but just getting into the " marrow of his 

 subject." But hold ! we have no business 

 here to write essays ; all we have to do 



