REPORT FROM THE COUNCIL 



TO THE 



ANNIVERSARY MEETING, MAY 1, 1851. 



Upon rendering an account of their proceedings for the past 

 year, the Council of the Horticultural Society think it 

 advisable, in the first place, to present to the Meeting the fol- 

 lowing 



Report from the Garden Committee. 



" The Garden Committee report that they have been diligently 

 occupied during the year in executing the trust committed to 

 them by the Council, as will be seen by the following statement, 

 which embodies the principal subjects that have occupied their 

 attention. 



At the period of the establishment of the Garden, as complete 

 a collection as possible was formed of the trees and shrubs which 

 are hardy enough to bear the climate of Middlesex without pro- 

 tection. In the course of the twenty -five years which have 

 elapsed since these trees were planted, great changes have been 

 successively made in the objects of the Society and in the ar- 

 rangements of the Garden. A Committee, which was appointed 

 by the Fellows of the Society in the year 1830 to examine the 

 affairs of the Society, particularly insisted upon the importance 

 of not allowing the Garden to be occupied by plants of mere 

 botanical interest, and large quantities of species have been since 

 that time removed as soon as it was ascertained that they did not 

 bear any direct relation to the objects of horticulture. To a 

 certain extent this has been effected in the Arboretum itself; but 

 the Committee, of opinion that a large number of unimportant 

 trees and shrubs still found places in tlie Garden, without in any 

 way contributing to its beauty, ordered all the worthless species 

 and all the deformed specimens of common trees to be removed, 

 and they believe that the appearance of the Garden will be found 

 to have been greatly improved by the measure. 



In connection with this proceeding, and in compliance with the 

 express desire of the Council, they found it necessary to re-arrange 

 and complete the shrubbery adjoining a long broad walk, at 



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