1894.] TRANSACTIONS. 9 



But for 3'^ears the Royal Horticultural Society published no 

 Transactions, being vitally concerned with the more essential 

 problem of how to maintain its very existence. Virtually bank- 

 rupt, it had neither pounds, shillings, nor pence, for the printer. 

 With reference to the Botanical Magazine, it need only be said 

 that there has never been a day when an order was not in force 

 in London authorizing a purchase of the only series lacking to 

 complete our set, whenever it could be obtained at a reasonable 

 price. Patient waiters are seldom losers ; and who can better 

 wait than an incorporated Society, which knows not death ! 

 And now, in behalf of the Committee on Library, which is will- 

 ing to assume all just responsibility for its action, or omission 

 to act, I desire to state that we plead no inadequacy of means, 

 having got all that we asked for Library purposes, and having 

 asked all that we ought in reason, Few works are written 

 now-a-days that are much more than a re-hash of older treatises. 

 The tendency of contributions from scientists is toward the 

 weekly papers like the English (Jhronicle, or Garden, and in 

 our own county the American Garden or Country Gentleman. 

 AVhen members have expressed a wish to that efl'ect, any desig- 

 nated work of manifest value has been speedily obtained. For 

 more than thirty years scarcely a day has passed in which the 

 writer was not present at the Library, prepared to listen to any 

 one that had a suggestion to make which might augment the in- 

 trinsic worth of our collection of books or tend to facilitate their 

 circulation. And it must ever be borne in mind that the use of 

 such Libraries, special as they are, cannot be forced. People 

 may consult them, to settle doubtful points, or to obtain light 

 upon matters of practice, where all is dark elsewhere, but they 

 do not sit down to a perusal of their volumes for mental relax- 

 ation or delight, as with the pages of history or romance. The 

 pursuit of artistic or technical learning must be a still-hunt : it 

 cannot be run down by a pack of hounds in full cry. 



The statement has been made broadly, that there are many 

 works of exceeding interest and worth which could be had for 

 the bare asking ; w'orks published under the auspices and at the 

 expense of the Federal Government ; and that upon a request 



