THE 



GARDENER. 



FEBRUARY 1870. 



THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY AND THE 

 HORTICULTURAL PRESS. 



N" the 28th of December last, a communication bearing that 

 date, and signed by the Assistant-Secretary of the Royal 

 Horticultural Society of London, was addressed to Mr 

 Richard Dean, one of the Editors of the 'Gardener,' 

 wherein was contained the following suggestive passage : "I regret to 

 inform you that, in making the annual changes in the constitution 

 of the Floral Committee, your name was chosen as one of those 

 whom the Council were compelled to withdraw from that body." It 

 would be interesting to know the nature of the compulsion brought to 

 bear on the Council of the Royal Horticultural Society, so as to create a 

 necessity for the removal of the name of Mr Dean from the roll of the 

 Floral Committee ; and further, the readers of the ' Gardener' will not 

 fail to be struck by the singularity of the coincidence, that this act of 

 the Council takes place simultaneously with Mr Dean's appointment 

 as one of the Editors of the 'Gardener.' 



Hitherto, and up to the last meeting of the Floral Committee in 

 1869, the changes in that body have been made as follows : the Secre- 

 tary read a list of attendances of each member during the year, then 

 the names of a few of the members whose attendance had been lowest 

 during that period were struck out, and other names substituted, it 

 being understood that the list of names so modified was to be sub- 

 mitted to the Council for their concurrence. Such a practice might be 

 open to objection, but it had the merit of being both above-board and 

 intelligible. On the 2d of October last, the Editors of the ' Gardeners' 

 Chronicle ' — and seeing that one of the Editors holds the position of 



D 



