FEBRUAEY 11, 1862. 105 



At tlie General Meeting held oti the 7tli inst. 117 more 

 Fellows were elected. 



The resignations and deaths during the past season have 

 been only 43. 



It \YiU thus be seen that whether the number of Fellows be 

 looked at as a whole, of a merely comparative view be taken of 

 the increase since the Isl of May last, there is equal ground for 

 satisfactioii. The List of Fellows also shows that, irrespective 

 of rank or title, the Society has <he honour to reckon among 

 its members a large proportion of the most distinguished men of 

 the day. 



Whilst the adhesion of so many persons of eminence has been 

 highly gratifying, the Council have never forgotten that the 

 real and proper scope of the Society is the advancement of 

 Horticultural knowledge. In all their proceedings they have 

 kept this steadily in view, and they trust that they may refer to 

 the work done by the Fruit and Floral Committees ; to the 

 information contained in their published " Proceedings ; " to the 

 many interesting and novel subjects exhibited at their Flower 

 shows, as w^ell as to the extent and beauty of these shows them- 

 selves ; to the mission of their Collector to South Brazil, the 

 returns from whom are already beginning to arrive ; and to their 

 ballots for seeds and plants, as proof of their efforts to sustain the 

 high reputation of the Society in this respect. Further im- 

 provements have occurred to the Council, which, as oppor- 

 tunities offer and means arise, it is their intention to carry into 



effect. 



The statements of accounts appended to this Report being, in 

 consequence of the alterations caused by the New Charter, only 

 for a fractional part of the year, viz., from 1st May to 31st 

 December, they cannot be looked at as a representation of the 

 results of the year; nor can their elements be dissected and 

 brought forward, as in past years, in contrast and comparison with 

 previous years. It is the partial commencement of a new epoch 

 and must stand by itself as an imperfect record. From the same 

 cause the accounts on the present occasion had to be prepared In 

 a somewhat different form from that which has been previously 

 employed. The Council has hitherto merely had to show the 

 Society how its own individual account stood. It now has to 

 produce a double set of accounts : one embracing the whole of 

 its affairs, including those of Chiswick as well as South Ken- 

 sington ; the other confined to South Kensington. A separate 



