s^ 



JOUKNAL op HOIit'ICULTURE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



[ January 13, 1874. 



Commissioners to see the Society out of its difBcultiea. Then 

 there was Mr. Batemau's circular, and the attempts that were 

 beiug made to show that the Society was in a state of iusolveucy, 

 whilst, in point of fact, it would be able to pay 20s. in the pound 

 as soon as the Commissioners paid the balance they owed. He 

 contended that the present Council had extricated the Society 

 from its difBculties. 



Mr. H. LiGGiNs thought it remarkable that in a Society, now 

 established for fifty Tseventy] years, the members had never ap- 

 plied for the privilege of voting by proxy. He would not give 

 the right of voting by jjroxy ; members should hear both sides 

 of a ciuestion, and those who were absent did not know all that 

 was going on. The clear object of the gentlemen who got up 

 this movement was to get vote by proxy in order to carry some 

 proposition by which to turn out the present Council. Who 

 signed the requisition for the meeting ? Six of the old Council 

 signed it. That showed the object of the movement. 



Mr. D. T. Fish was there at the summons of the Council, and 

 he wished the Council would in future get the opinion of their 

 legal adviser before tliey summoned a general meeting. Why 

 should he have had to travel a hundred miles at the summons 

 of the Council? Every member who lived in the country 

 wished for vote by proxy. They had the advantage of a horti- 

 cultural press, conducted with gi'eat ability, and through it they 

 ■were always well informed of what was going on in London 

 respecting the Society. 



Mr. W. Haughton said the proposition before the meeting 

 was, that male Fellows ought to have the right of voting by 

 jiroxy. He was opposed to dividing the Society into factions, 

 but was it right that the Kensington minority should rule the 

 three thousand members of the Society? He had looked through 

 the Charter and bye-laws, and could not find in them any rule 

 forbidding a resolution previously negatived being passed. The 

 opinion of the Society's legal adviser, as he took it, meant that 

 the Council of their own mere motion could not bring forward 

 a resolution after it had been negatived at a general meeting. 



A Fellow stated that he had travelled 120 miles to attend, 

 and if the Council knew the resolution could not be put, the 

 country members ought to have been apprised of the fact. 



The CH.iiEM.\N ; They are obliged to summon a meeting. 



After considerable discussion as to whether the resolution 

 should be submitted to the meeting, the Council having decided 

 not to act in contravention of their legal adviser's opinion. Sir 

 A. Slade said in answer to Mr. Taylor, the Charter permits the 

 Council alone to make bye-laws. Bye-laws otherwise made 

 have no binding effect upon the Society. 



Lord A. Cuf BciiiLL replied that if the resolution were passed 

 it would be an instruction to the Council to make a bye-law. 



Mr. C. H. Pinches remarked that he had been at some pains 

 to go over the list of Fellows, and found that those outside the 

 London district were numerically one-fourth of the whole. 

 Half of these— the ladies— could already vote by proxy, and 

 therefore the number for whom that privilege was sought was 

 only one-eighth of the Fellows. 



Mr. Bateman denied that anything he had done in the matter 

 emanated from the Koyal Commissioners. If he thought he 

 was being made a tool by the Boyal Commissioners, or by a 

 clique, he should not suffer it. He had been always opposed to 

 the" intrigues of the Commissioners. He considered the Society 

 would not be able to m.aiutain its independence without the 

 establishment of vote by proxy. 



The Chairman said the Council had no proposal to make to 

 the meeting. They had not called the meeting, but were com- 

 pellcil to do so through the requisition of twelve Fellews. It 

 pleased these twelve gentlemen, and those who supported them, 

 to say that the Council ought to propose a certain deiinite course 

 of action to that meeting, but the Council reserved to them- 

 selves the right of forming their own opinions as to what ought 

 and what ought not to be proposed ; and, in the exercise of that 

 discretion, they did not propose such a resolution as Mr. Bate- 

 man bad brought forward. Mr. Bateman was indignant because 

 it had been stated he bad any connection with the Pioyal Com- 

 missioners; but Mr. Bateman himself had led them into the 

 mistake, because in the list of his supporters he read the names 

 of Dr. Lyon Playfaii-, a Koyal Commissioner, of Mr. Edgar 

 Bowring, a Koyal Commissioner, and of Lord A. Churchill, a 

 member of the old Council. Behind Mr. Bateman sat the great 

 Mr. Cole himself, and General Scott, so what were people to 

 think? The Council did not tell the meeting what their 

 opinions on the question of vote by proxy were, they only said 

 they thought this was not the occasion on which the question 

 should be brought forvTard. Although the meeting might ex- 

 press an opinion on the question, the Council would not interfere 

 with that expression, take any action upon it, or consider them- 

 selves bound to follow it. The Council were the heirs of em- 

 barrassments left by their predecessors, and if the fundamental 

 mode of voting were changed, that change would only throw 

 additional embarrassment in their way. If a different course 

 of action from that hitherto pursued were preferred by the 

 Fellows, let it be at the Annual General Meeting or some con- 



venient time afterwards, when the Council would be prepared 

 with a policy. 



Mr. PowNALL moved an amendment that the further con- 

 sideration of the subject be postponed till after the General 

 Meeting. This having been seconded by Mr. Liggius and lost, 

 the original resolution was put by the Chairman, who remarked, 

 before doing so, that the Council must not be considered as 

 mixing themselves up with the matter at all, but that he put 

 the resolution formally as Chairman to preserve the harmony of 

 the meeting. 



Mr. Bateman's resolution having been carried by a show of 

 hands, the meeting concluded. 



We are requested to publish the following correspondence on 

 the subject of the meeting above reported : — 



" 0, Hj-de Park Gate, South, W. , 

 "yth January, 1871. 



" Sra, — As the subjoined resolution' was yesterday carried 

 (without counting 119 proxies with which I had been entrusted) 

 by a large majority, I cannot but regret that the Council on 

 merely technical grounds should have decUned to produce tho 

 " bye-law " therein referred to, and so give immediate effect to 

 the wishes of the Fellows. 



*' But as it is most undesirable that the matter should be left 

 in its present uncertainty, I have to request, on behalf of the 

 Fellows with whom I am co-operating, that you will kindly in- 

 form me, on or before the IGth inst., whether the Council are pre- 

 pared to loyally accept the decision of the Fellows, and take 

 immediately the requisite steps for the passing of a bye-law so 

 as to enable the P'ellows to vote by proxy at the next Annual 

 General Meeting of tho Society. — I have the honour to be. Sir, 

 your obedient servant, 



"(Signed), James Batejun." 



" The Secretarj- of tho Royal Horticultural Society." 



" Koyal Horticultural Society, South Kensington, S.W., 

 " 14th January, 1874. 



" SiE, — In answer to your letter of the Oth inst., inquiring 

 whether the Council of the Royal Horticultural Society are 

 prepared to introduce the system of proxy-voting at the General 

 Meetings of the Society in consequence of the opinion expressed 

 by the Special General Meeting held on the nth inst., I am di- 

 rected to say that the Council, while considering that it will be 

 their duty to carry out the wishes of the Fellows on this point 

 as soon as those wishes shall have been finally expressed, can- 

 not look upon that meeting as haWng conclusively settled the 

 matter. 



" It appears to the Council that the innovation proposed is so 

 grave that they would fail in their duty towards the Society if 

 they were at once to concur in the policy adopted by the majority 

 at that meeting. 



" I desire to remind you that the meeting of the 8th inst. was 

 promoted solely by yourself and your friends, without any cor- 

 responding interest shown by those opposed to you ; also that 

 the meeting, even when promoted by so much diligence, was, 

 as compared with the meeting which rejected proxy- voting last 

 April, poorly attended. 



" In conclusion, I have to state on behalf of the Council that 

 they will give this subject very careful consideration, and will 

 call another meeting specially to decide upon it when the largest 

 portion of the Fellows are in town, and can attend to express 

 their views. 



" The Council intend to publish this correspondence. — I have 

 the honour to be, Sir, your obedient servant, 



" (Signed), AV. A. Lindsay, Secretary." 



" James Bateman, Esq., F.R.S." 



PORTBAITS OF PLANTS, PLOWEES, AND 

 FEUITS. 



Saxifiiaga pelt-ua. Nat. ord., Saxifragaceie. Linn., Dec- 

 andria Digynia.— Native of CaUforuia. 1< lowers white, tinged 

 with pink. " Variable as the foliage of the Saxifrages is, the 

 present is the only one known in which that organ is com- 

 pletely peltate, and like many other peltate-leaved marsh and 

 water-loving plants, this is stated to bo found ou the margins 

 of streams and in the water itself." — (But. liar/., t. (i074.) 



X.\NTHORrn(KA ijUADKANGULAT.i. Nat. ofrf., Junceii'. Linn., 

 Hexandria Monogynia. — " It is a native of South Australia, 

 where it inhabits rocky hill ranges, and was sent to Kew by 

 Dr. Schomburgk, the energetic Director of the Adelaide Bo- 

 tanic Gai-den. Shortly after its arrival the trunk, which is 

 4 feet high, slowly developed its fresh green leaves, which 



* Tho Fellows ot the lioyol Horticultural Society assembled in General 

 Meeting resolve that all Fellows of the Society ou^'ht to have the right of 

 voting by proxy at all General Meetings of the Society, and they call upon the 

 Council to submit to them for conlii-mation the bye-law made by the Council 

 in March last, enabling all Fellows so to vote. 



