200 REPORT OF THE COUNCIL, MAY 2, 1853.. 



In the course of the Autumn the Society passed a By-Law, 

 increasing the number of Honorary Members from five to ten ; 

 this has enabled the Council to remove from the list of Fellows, 

 and to place, as was most fitting, at the head of the Society, the 

 names of the following Royal and Imperial personages : — 



His Royal Highness Prince Albert. 



His Imperial Majesty the Euij>eror of Russia. 



His Majesty the King of Prussia. 



His Majesty the King of Wurtemburg. 



His Imperial Highness the Archduke John of Austria. 



All the vacancies in the list of Foreign members have been also 

 tilled by the election of eight of the most distinguished Physio- 

 logists or scientific Horticulturists of the present day, viz. : — 



His Excellency Prince Michael "Woronzow, Tiflis. 



The Count Francis v. Thun Hohenstein, Tetchen Castle, Bohemia. 



Professor Alphonse de Candolle, Botanic Garden, Geneva. 



Professor Wni. de Vriese, University, Leyden. 



Professor Win. Gasparrini, Naples. 



Professor Adr. de Jussieu, Jardin des Plantes, Paris. 



Professor Hugo Mohl, Tubingen. 



Professor Treviranus, Bonn. 



The Council trust that this recapitulation of what has been 

 effected during a year of considerable difficulty, and of the 

 measures which are in progress for the future, will satisfy the 

 Society that its interests have been cared for to the utmost extent 

 of the means which have been available. The object of the 

 Council has been to render the Corporation useful to the Fellows 

 as well as to the country, to increase its sphere of activity in 

 every practicable manner, and at the same time to preserve its 

 finances in a secure position ; for all experience shows that what- 

 ever appearance of prosperity may attend a lavish expenditure 

 exceeding the means of defraying it, such a system must eventu- 

 ally prove as fatal to a public association as to an individual. It 

 is this feeling which has led them to pause before entering upon 

 costly undertakings, and to administer all the branches of their 

 administration with the utmost economy. If they have at last 

 resolved upon incurring some expenses to which the Society has 

 of late been unaccustomed, it has been in the full conviction 

 that the finances of the Society will be improved, that its real 

 utility will be greatly extended, and that the public will support 

 them effectually by joining in greater numbers an institution of 

 indisputable public value. 



