148 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



and well-written report was published in tlie current issue of Trewinaii's Exetev 

 T'lyini) Post. 



Tlie anniversary festival of the Gardener's Royal Benevolent Institution took 

 place at the Crystal Palace on the day of the flower show, June 8. The attendance 

 was unusually numerous ; nearly three hundred ladies and gentlemen sat down 

 to dinner. The dinner was excellently served, and a military band enlivened the 

 feast by the performance of a selection of pieces. Mr. Justice Haliburton (Sam Slick) 

 presided, supported by Sir Joseph Paxton, M.P., Colonel Dickson, Admiral Carey, 

 the Rer. il. M. Bellew, C. W. Dilke, Esq., Sir Charles Fox, Mr. Charles Horsley, Mr. 

 Earquhar, etc. After the usual loyal toasts had been drunk and responded to, the 

 chairman proposed "Prosperity to the Gardeners' Benevolent Institution. He said, 

 " This society was founded in the year 1838, but did not make any progress until 1840 ; 

 since then it has steadily and gradually progressed. The pensioners of this society, I 

 see, are allowed to reside in any part of the United Kingdom. Well, there is very 

 little in tliat ; but I see by the number on the pension list that the average age is 73 

 years. Gardening must be a very healthful occupation ; if the avei'age age is 73, a great 

 many must be over 100 years old. I strongly recommend the occupation of a gar- 

 dener. I see, again, that no man can be placed on the list of pensioners, unless his 

 character will bear the strictest investigation. Well, I think the society are not 

 likely to have many applicants, for I never yet saw the mau whose chai-acter would 

 stand the test of the strictest investigation, and I should be very sorry to trust my 

 character to such an examhiation. The stock is invested in Government funds, and 

 the treasurer is Robert Wrench, Esq. You must recollect that this is the object for 

 which we have met here to-day — it is to aid the benevolent institution of the Gardeners' 

 Society. I said before that we are much indebted to the gardeners of this country — much 

 more that we are aware of. I have been, on a small scale, myself a practical gardener ; 

 and I know that the progress of farming is built on the experience of the gardener. 

 Now there are three important things which you all know must be done, if you wish 

 to succeed in farming or gardening, and they are, make your land dry, let it be warm, 

 and keep it clean. Those three great axioms we owe to the principles of under- 

 draining shown us by the market-gardeners, the deep trenching, and the deep and 

 beautiful cultivation which they practise. The object of this meeting is to raise a 

 subscription to aid this benevolent institution ; it is no charity, and I should be sorry 

 to call it a charity. ' Institution' is not the word you would choose to express a 

 charity by. The ladies are the patronizers in this country of the gardeners and the 

 garden ; they are, in fact, the great patronizers of gardening, and they could patronize 

 nothing better. Now there is one subject I wish to make mention of, and that is, 

 that when people employ a gardener — and no one employs them except persons of 

 property — I hope the gardener will say, ' We have a society, and I hope you will, in 

 addition to my salary, contribute a guinea a year to the funds.' If the gardener asks 

 his employer to cojitribute a sum that is not to go into his own pocket, but to help 

 to provide for his brethren in their old age, he will sufler no depreciation, and find 

 very few to refuse." The toasts that followed were the health of the Chairman, 

 proposed by the Rev. H. M. Bellew ; the healths of the Vice-Presidents, coupled 

 with the names of Sir Joseph Paxton, M.P., and Mr. H. G. Bohn ; the healths of the 

 Directors of the Crystal Palace Company ; and healths of the Secretary, Mr. Cutler, 

 and " the Ladies." The subscriptions amounted to £310. 



At the Crystal Palace Exhibition, hekl on the Sth, the contributions were of a 

 varied and interesting character, and the attendance of visitors was very numerous. 

 The principal exhibitors were Mr. Dods, gardener to Sir J. Catheart, Bart. ; Mr. 

 Whitbread, gardener to II. Collyer, Esq. ; Messrs. Yeitcli, Turner, Standish, Peed, 

 Green, Page, Baxendine, Rhodes, Cutbush, Kail, Chilman, Smith, Carson, Tegg, 

 Hamp, Gedney, Nye, Cross, Bragg, Hill, Scott, Bailey, Young, Ferguson, Snow, and 

 Ingram. Of NewPlants, Messrs. Veitch seat the Californian Torreya myristica, andThuja 

 Lobbii ; Farfugiuin grande, the lilac and white-flowered annual Fouzlia dianthiflora, 

 Chamsebatia foholosa,a hardy flowering shrub from California, with handsome Mimosa- 

 like foliage; Clianthus Dampieri, and a neiv Gyrnnogramma. From Mr. Standish 

 came a white-blossomed Yiburnum from the north of China ; Mr. Carson, Cyanophy- 

 lum magnificum ; Mr. Williams, the North American Goodyera pubescens, a pretty 

 kind, which will succeed in a greenhouse ; Mr. Gedney, a handsome large rich orange- 

 flowered Hemerocallis from Natal, with semi-double flowers, and Tachiadenus carina- 

 tns, a Gentian-like plant with pretty violet blossoms. Mr. Barnes, of Camberwell, 



