JOUEN.^ OF HORTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GAKDENEE. 



[ February 15, 1872. 



fallen, and where tlie fall may be directly traced to the Exhihi- 

 tion, are the daily admissions and promenades, the rent of space 

 in the arcades, and the produce of Exhibitions and Fetes. The 

 sum received for daily admissions and promenades has fallen 

 from £463 &s.9d. to i'i72 is. Id.; the rent of space in the arcades, 

 from A'424 to £388 18s. ; and the produce of Exhibitions and 

 Fetes, from £1277 7s. to £634 6s. Id. A considerable diminution 

 in the receipts for garden produce vras of course to be looked for 

 after the garden at Chis-svick had been so much reduced in size, 

 at all events until the new an-angements are in -working order. 

 It has, however, proved much less than the Council anticipated 

 —viz., from £578 5s. lid. to £349 15s. 4d. The alterations at 

 Chiswick have been completed, and the new walls built, the 

 expenses having partly been borne by the adjoining tenant and 

 partly defrayed from the sale of plants and other produce in the 

 ground given up. 



4. The Council have the pleasure to announce that although 

 in the year 1870 the Society sustained a slight loss from the 

 Show at Oxford, this last year they more than redeemed it at 

 Nottingham. Besides having produced a Show of imusual beauty 

 and interest, they realised a net profit of £774, a result which 

 the Council feel to be in a great measure due to the devoted and 

 untiring labours of one of their number, Mr. E. J. Lowe. 



5. Tiu-ning to the other side of the account, the Fellows wiU 

 find, that notwithstanding the reduction of the establishment at 

 Chiswick, its expenses have last year risen from £1835 8s. 7d. to 

 £2060 19s. 11(7. The explanation of this is the large drafts made 

 on the garden at Chiswick by the estabhshnient at South Ken- 

 sington, rendered necessary by the International Exhibition. 



6. On South Kensington Garden the expenses have also been 

 considerably increased, the amount this year being £3802 2s. 6d. 

 instead of £2359 10s. 7d. The expenses of Exhibitions last year 

 were £1484 7s. Id., this year they amounted to £1916 8s. id. 

 This increase must be regarded as part of the necessary outlay 

 required to produce the receipt of £5030 lis. from the Exhibition. 



7. It is also to be observed that the amount of Kensington 

 Garden expenses is largely increased by the payment of £500 to 

 Mr. Foley for his exquisite piece of sculpture, " The Boy at the 

 Stream," which was produced under arrangements initiated by 

 H.R.H. the Prince Consort, at the estabUshmeut of the garden 

 at South Kensington in 1861, and which has remained imexecuted 

 imtil now. The work, though ordered in 1S02, was delivered 

 only in 1870. 



8. Another large item which the Fellows will observe in the 

 expenditure is £500 paid on account of tents. Tliis is the first 

 instalment of a payment of £1400, which those two fine tents 

 now in the gardens will cost. These tents had become essential 

 to the continued success of the Society's Shows. 



9. The foregoing is a brief summary of the working business 

 of the past year. It now remains to say a few words in anticipa- 

 tion of that of the coming year. The Council have only two 

 alterations of any moment in view, but both are important. 

 Many Fellows who were in town dmringthe period of the Exhibi- 

 tion, and who availed themselves of their privileges, may have 

 felt some degree of inconvenience from the arrangements with 

 the Exhibition Commissioners as to entrance into the Exhibition 

 and gardens, and all of them must have agi-eed that it would 

 have been a very great boon had their Fellows' tickets admitted 

 them to the Exhibition on the same footing that they did to tlie 

 gardens. Feeling tliis, the Council have endeavoured to make 

 an'angements mth the Commissioners, by which this privilege 

 should be acquired, and they have the satisfaction of announcing 

 to the Fellows that the Commissioners have agi'eed to grant the 

 privilege sought by the Council for the present year, in con- 

 sideration of the use of the Quadrant Arcades by visitors to the 

 Exhibition. 



10. The other step is the appointment of a Botanical Professor, 

 who, by lectures, answers to personal inqiuries, and other means, 

 shall assist in establishing a more coiTect knowledge of the prin- 

 ciples of botany and horticulture, and of the names of plants, 

 among those of the Fellows and their gardeners who are desirous 

 to profit by the opportunity. An abstract of the duties proposed 

 to be attached to the position is annexed, and the Council believe 

 that they have secured a very competent botanist and horticul- 

 tm-ist to undertake them, in the person of Mr. Thistleton Dyer, 

 late Professor of Botany in the University of Dublin. 



Duties of the Professor of Botany. 



1. — Geneeae. — To conduct the scientific business of the 

 Society, both hoi-ticultural and botanical. To enter into com- 

 munication with horticultural and botanical establishments at 

 home and abroad, and especially with the Societies in union with 

 the Royal Horticultural Society. 



2. — South Kensington. — To attend the meetings and exhibi- 

 tions of the Society, and there note carefully, and report upon 

 all objects of merit, for publication by the Society ; also to pay 

 attention to the correct naming of the plants exhibited. 



To aid the Rev. M. J. Berkeley at the Wednesday meetings. 



To be at the offices one afternoon in each week, for the purpose 

 of answering any scientific inquiries which may be made by the 

 Fellows. 



To edit any publications which the Society may issue. 



To give a series of lectiu'es on subjects connected with scientific 

 horticulture to the Fellows and others during the session, as the 

 Council may direct. 



To take charge of the library and look to its increase. 



3. — CmswiCK. — To take care that all plants of botanical interest 

 be properly named. 



To inspect all scientific experiments made in the garden, to 

 report the results, and offer suggestions for further experiments 

 relative to scientific horticulture and the growth of plants. 



To be present one afternoon each week to give information on 

 such points as may be necessary to Fellows and gardeners of 

 Fellows, and to receive from them plants which may require 

 botanical names. 



To give a series of lectures each year to the students in the 

 gardens and the gardeners of Fellows on scientific horticulture 

 and botany. 



To report monthly on the meteorological observations made in 

 the garden. 



To form one of the Horticultural Board of Directors. 



Extracts from the Reports of the HoRTicuiiTuliAi, 



DmECTOES. 



Sciektific Committee. — Under the peculiar circumstances of 

 the gardens at Chiswick in 1871, it was impossible for the Board 

 of Direction to do more than apply all their energies to the best 

 mode of carrying out the necessary alterations. In consequence 

 of the lateness of the season at which anything effectual could 

 be accomplished, there was considerable anxiety as to the fate 

 of the valuable stock, which could not be removed till a period 

 far later than was desirable. It is, however, with great pleasui-e 

 that they are able to report that the removal of the trees was 

 most successful. Partly from constant care, and partly from a 

 very favourable condition of weather, not a single plant of any 

 value failed, and the gardens must now be considered as in a 

 most satisfactory condition. The Board will now be prepared to 

 caiTy out any horticultural experiments which may be sug- 

 gested, while it is hoped that, ivnder the regulations proposed 

 by the Council for Lectures to Students, the gardens may become 

 a very valuable school for horticulture. The Board cannot help 

 congi'atulating the Society in having been able to retain the 

 sei-vices of Mr. Barron, which could not possibly have been very 

 well replaced. 



PoMOLOGiCAL DEPARTMENT. — 'Uliat has chiefly occupied at- 

 tention in the pomological department during the past year has 

 been the preparation and fiu-nishing of the ground, in the new 

 arrangement of the garden, with the fruit trees that were removed 

 from the old orchard. The advantages of this reconstruction 

 are now apparent, and not the least important of these is the 

 classifying of the trees, by which facilities are obtained for com- 

 paring and judging of the dilferent varieties. The Board take 

 this oppoi-tunity of testifjlug to the skill displayed by Mr. Barron 

 in the way the new arrangements have been carried out and 

 completed. Although the whole of the open space appropriated 

 to the fi'uit department has been completed, the new boundary 

 walls have yet to be furnished. Steps have been taken, and are 

 now in progress, to obtain such trees as are adapted for that 

 pm-pose, and ere spring has much advanced as complete a col- 

 lection of Apricots, Cherries, Peaches, and Nectarines, as it is 

 possible to obtain shall have been secured, and the former high 

 reputation of the Chiswick garden for its pomological collections 

 will have been restored. Up to the present time there exist, 

 under the successfvil re-an-angement of these, about 400 sorts of 

 Apples, 350 of Pears, 300 of Plums, 430 of Cherries, 220 of 

 Vines, and 100 of Figs. Of the last there are yet many varieties 

 that have not been determined. 



Besides the work of reconstruction, an extensive experi- 

 mental trial of the numerous varieties of Borecole or Kale has 

 been made, by which the confusion so much complained of 

 will be cleared up, and the various names by which the 

 varieties are known -n-iU be referred to their proper places. This 

 season arrangements have been made for a trial of Peas, of 

 which the varieties have become so numerous, and the confusion 

 of names so complicated, since the last great trial in the garden. 



In the Great Vinery there is a verj' marked improvement in 

 the condition of the Vines since the enlargement and re-di-essing 

 of the border, and the heading-down of some of the varieties. 

 The new Grape, Madresfield Court, which was at first supposed 

 to be a variety requiring hot treatment, has proved to be one of 

 the very best for a cool house, equalling if not surpassing the 

 Black Hamburgh in the high condition it attains imder such 

 cuTumstances. A Vine of this variety was planted in company 

 with one of the Black Hamburgh in the Rev. Mr. Foimtaine's 

 vinery, which was erected in the garden, and although the house 

 has no provision of any kind for being artificially heated, the 

 Madresfield Court Grape ripened thoroughly, and was considered 

 to be much better adapted for such a situation than the Black 

 Hamburgh. 



As usual, the Fellows have made good use of the privilege 

 afforded them in obtaining scions of fruit trees and seeds from 



