536 THE GARDENER. [Dec. 



foliage helps to paralyse the roots, and prevent their pumping up a 

 superabundant supply of sap to the Grapes in a crude state ; at all 

 events, it admits a freer circulation of air, and a stagnant atmosphere is 

 an evil. We have kept Grapes this season till very lately in a low 

 sunk pit under obscured glass, and, we may say, under a constant 

 downpour of rain, by simply keeping the pipes constantly warm, and 

 surfaces perfectly dry, so that the Grapes were always too warm to 

 condense moisture. Out of 300 bunches under such conditions, not 2 

 lb. were lost by decay ; while if the fire-heat had not been constant, 

 and a cold stagnant air allowed, we are certain the result would have 

 been the very reverse. 



THE FUTURE OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL 

 SOCIETY. 



There now seems every probability of the Kensington Garden being 

 doomed; and this is a subject rather for congratulation than complaint, 

 since it has been a stumbling-block to the Society since its first estab- 

 lishment. Bad in point of design, and expensive to keep up, it has 

 done nothing in the interest of horticulture that might not have been 

 done far better in the fine old garden at Chiswick. The last-named 

 establishment has always been interesting to horticulturists, and 

 would now have been one of the finest gardens in England for all 

 practical purposes had not its resources been cut off to supply those of 

 its would-be more aristocratic companion. The Kensington establish- 

 ment has relapsed into little more than a fashionable square for the 

 convenience of householders in the neighbourhood, and we hope yet 

 to see Chiswick again the centre of horticulture — a position it ought 

 always to have retained. The sooner the gardens at South Kensing- 

 ton are handed over to her Majesty's Commissioners the better; and 

 when that step is taken, the Fellows may congratulate themselves on 

 having got rid of a burden that has weighed down and thwarted their 

 best efforts for years. There are legal difficulties in the way of this 

 being done ; and owing to the bungling policy of the management, the 

 Society's affairs have unhappily become so complicated and entangled 

 that we are very much afraid one difficulty after another will prevent 

 their adjustment. 



Like Diogenes, we look in vain for a man able and willing to take 

 the helm of the stranding ship. Committees and councils are all very 

 well in their way, but we know of nothing more likely than these to 

 cripple and warp real progress. We never yet knew a concern, how- 

 ever large and complicated, that could not be better managed by an 

 energetic man properly seconded, than by the best of committees. 



