326 THE MAGAZINE OF HORTICULTURE. 



distributed gratuitously to the Fellows during a period of 

 twenty years, without the funds of the corporation having 

 furnished more than about 4000^. for that purpose. 



Between 1823 and 1830, the council observe, the progress 

 of the society in works of permanent utility had been con- 

 tinual and rapid. The confusion that formerly existed among 

 fruits and esculents had been reduced to order. That system 

 of heating glass structures by hot water, instead of by flues 

 or expensive applications of steam, to which modern garden- 

 ers owe so much of their success, although it did not origi- 

 nate in the garden, was first systematically applied there in 

 the face of great opposition from those who objected to the 

 introduction of a method to which they were unaccustomed ; 

 and the rapidity with which it gained public favor must cer- 

 tainly be ascribed in a great degree to the proofs which the 

 garden furnished of its perfect suitability to cultivation. The 

 importance of regulating the moisture of the atmosphere of 

 glass-houses — never attended to systematically by the older 

 gardeners, but which has become one of the corner-stones of 

 successful horticulture — was first demonstrated in the garden, 

 after having been pointed out by Daniell in the society's 

 "Transactions." With instruments of the best construction, 

 procured and placed under the advice of the late Professor 

 Daniell and the present Colonel Sabine, a series of daily ob- 

 servations of the barometer, thermometer, hygrometer, rain 

 gauge, 6uC., was commenced on the first of May, 1825, and 

 has been continued to the present time ; and the council be- 

 lieve that there does not exist in this country so long, exact, 

 unbroken, and trustworthy a record of the climate of London 

 as the " Meteorological Journal " of the Society has now 

 become. Nor must it be forgotten that in 1830, the country 

 was in full possession of those numerous and now universally 

 cultivated hardy plants, which resulted from the expedition 

 of Douglas to then almost unexplored regions governed by the 

 Hudson's Bay Company. The Brodieeas, Collomias, Euto- 

 cas, Gilias, Gaillardias, Coreopsides, Clarkias, Godetias, Col- 

 linsias, Lupines, Escholtzias, the musky Mimulus, numerous 

 Pentstemons, and many another universal favorite in the 



