394 THE MAGAZINE OF HORTICULTURE. 



familiar to most of our readers. The good it has accom- 

 plished cannot be well estimated in words. For more than 

 half a century it has been foremost in the great work of prog- 

 ress. " It has minutely examined the qualities and reduced 

 to order the names of fruit trees and esculent plants ; it has 

 directed the attention of scientific as M'^ell as practical men to 

 the improvement of the arts of cultivation ; it has introduced 

 at much cost, great numbers of exotic plants to decorate our 

 gardens ; it has published many volumes filled with important 

 treatises upon almost every subject in which the gardener is 

 interested ; it has formed a very extensive garden and orchard, 

 in which have been collected, from time to time, numerous 

 plants, valuable for their utility and beauty ; it has given an 

 impetus to cultivators by its public exhibitions of garden pro- 

 duce ; it has been a school from which have sprung some of 

 the most distinguished gardeners of the present century ; and 

 it has given away to its fellows and to public establishments 

 above a million and a half of plants, packets of seeds and cut- 

 tings, lii effecting all this, $1,250,000 have been expended, 

 of which $200,000 have been consumed in the creation of the 

 garden', more than $ 10,000 in forming collections of drawings, 

 models of fruit, &c. ; $65,000 in the mere cost of procuring 

 new plants and seeds, while above $100,000 have been 

 directly applied in the form of medals and money prizes for 

 the encouragement of horticulture." 



Such is a brief account of what has been accomplished by 

 the oldest association in Great Britain, an association which 

 now appeals to the public for assistance. Burdened with 

 ■ liabilities to the amount of $50,000, it is now compelled to 

 dispose of the garden unless a sufficient sum can be raised to 

 cancel the debt. It is greatly to be regretted that it should 

 have been brought to this condition ; nothing, we think, but 

 injudicious management has been the cause. Had its Vice- 

 Secretary, Dr. Lindley, to whom its management is mostly 

 entrusted, pursued a liberal policy, conciliating the numerous 

 cultivators around London, on whom alone the success of its 

 exhibitions, which were the source of its income, depended, 

 it might now be in as flourishing a state as ever. But its 



