JULY. 321 



sufficient to overcome the faults and indiscretions alluded to. 

 It is to the Society we are indebted for the valuable trees and 

 plants introduced by Douglass from the Northwest Coast ; by 

 Mr. Fortune from China; and by a number of other collectors 

 in all parts of the world. The addition of one such plant as 

 the Glycine sinensis, is in itself a sum too vast to be men- 

 tioned in comparison with that which has been carelessly _ 

 spent. 



The great expense attending the publication of the Jour- 

 nal of the Society shows the immense cost of works with col- 

 ored plates of fruits and flowers, and the sum of $125,000 for 

 the ten volumes is a very large amount. No pains were 

 spared to have the plates done in the best manner, and these 

 volumes contain the original drawings of some of our finest 

 fruits. But the immense expense of the publication induced 

 the Society to give it up, and substitute in its place the pres- 

 ent Journal of its Proceedings on a much cheaper plan. — Ed. 



Last Tuesday was the fiftieth anniversary of the Horti- 

 • cultural Society of London, and the council took advantage 

 of the occasion to lay before the meeting a sketch of the 

 rise and progress of this great corporation up to the present 

 time. The report itself is much too long for our space, and 

 we therefore confine ourselves to condensing portions of it, 

 recommending every one to read the complete report if he 

 can. 



The society was established in the year 1804, since which 

 time great changes have taken place, the face of gardens is 

 entirely altered, and the art of cultivation has been brought 

 to a state of perfection which could not have been antici- 

 pated fifty years ago. Probably few persons have any distinct 

 recollection of the real state of gardening in the beginning of 

 the present century. It is however obvious from the writings 

 of those who flourished at that time, that no English garden 

 bore much resemblance to the first-class establishments of the 

 present day. Vegetable physiology had only just begun to 

 be applied to practice ; what was good in cultivation did not 

 extend beyond the fruit and kitchen garden, which was scan- 



VOL. XXI. NO. VII. 41 



