REPORT OF THE COUNCIL. 



The Council, in offering on the present occasion to tiie 

 Annual Meeting the yearly Report of the progress and 

 general affairs of the Society since the last Anniversary, 

 although they cannot refer to a continuance of that pro- 

 gressive increase in the number of its Members through 

 which the Society has so rapidly attained its present extent, 

 or to a corresponding augmentation in the financial Re- 

 ceipts, have at the same time no cause to consider its pre- 

 sent condition as otherwise than flourishing. The amount 

 of Members is now so considerable as almost to preclude 

 the expectation of any material annual addition to their 

 number, while the fluctuation in the Receipts at the Gardens 

 during the past year, as compared with 1836, is mainly re- 

 ferable to unavoidable contingencies, and cannot therefore 

 be regarded as indicative of a prospective "permanent dimi- 

 nution in the funds arising to the Society from that import- 

 ant source of income. 



The Council have the gratification of being able to an- 

 nounce to the Members the pleasing intelligence that Her 

 Majesty has most graciously intimated her pleasure to be- 

 come the Patron of the Society. 

 « 



Members. 



The number of Fellows elected since the last Anniversary 

 is 172; of these 148 have paid the entrance-fee and sub- 

 scription for the current year. The removals ordered by 

 the Council, in conformity with the ninth section of the 1st 

 chapter of the By-Laws, have amounted to 114. Of the 



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