10 



THE NATUKALIST. 



KOYAL HOETICULTUEAL SoCIETY. 



To the Editors of the Naturalist. 

 Gentlemen, — Would you be kind 

 enough to allow me a small space 

 in your first impression, though I 

 feel some little delicacy in asking 

 this favour, knowing that you will 

 be pressed for space in this your 

 first issue. I doubt not you are 

 aware that the Eoyal Horticultural 

 Society, South Kensington, have 

 offered prizes for collections of the 

 dried plants of each county in the uni- 

 ted kingdom. They state that this is 

 for the encouragement of Scientific 

 Botany among all classes. But 

 surely they do not think of what 

 are termed working men competing 

 for these prizes, and more especially 

 in an extensive county like York- 

 shire ; now I should suppose that 

 this, emanating from a society like 

 the Eoyal Horticultural Society, is 

 intended for the encouragement of 

 Scientific Botany amongst young 

 gardeners, more than any other class 

 of men : this may, or may not, be 

 the case. They further state the 

 judges will not award the prizes 

 unless the collection is a fair repre- 

 sentation of the plants to be found 

 in the county in which they have 

 been collected. I profess to know 

 something of Yorkshire, as well as 

 of the plants that are to be found 

 growing wild in it, and I have no 

 hesitation in stating that it is a moral 

 impossibility for any one man to col- 



lect anything like a representation 

 of the Flora of Yorkshire in the time 

 specified by the society. They must 

 naturally think that there is some- 

 thing very fascinating in connection 

 with a medal, to induce a man to 

 give up his employment and set out 

 collecting, and this he will have to 

 do, and a meagre affair it will be 

 when the season is over; and if his 

 time is worth anything his collection 

 must cost him in time, railway tra- 

 velling, &c., not less than One Hun- 

 dred Pounds; I cannot see how he 

 will be benefited by this outlay, or 

 what benefit science will receive 

 from it. 



They state the collection must be 

 arranged according to any natural 

 method, the collector to follow some 

 work on British Botany ; there are 

 three or four works mentioned which 

 no doubt are preferred by the So- 

 ciety, so that if the intending com- 

 petitor is not already possessed of 

 one of these works, he must at once 

 procure one to carry out the object 

 they have in view, and to make room 

 for new editions that will no doubt 

 shortly appear with new localities 

 attached ; that is on condition that 

 this work is carried out to the entire 

 satisfaction of the Society. This is 

 the benefit the working botanist 

 will receive for his labour. He will 

 in the first place give the informa- 

 tion, and in the next he will have a 

 new edition of some works on British 



