71 



this occasion. Not only so, but never before do we remember 

 to have seen so many articles exhibited which no prudent judge 

 would recognize as meritorious. We attribute this also to the 

 cause above assigned, for we cannot but think that many of 

 those whose flowers we found on the tables, knew perfectly 

 well that their chance of a prize was, and ought to be, extreme- 

 ly slender. Still, the very fair and democratic practice of the 

 Society in giving tickets, is as available in the case of a meagre, 

 ill^formed boquet, as in that of the best collection ; and of 

 course, to use a common phrase, the exhibitor of the former 

 makes it pay far better than the other. 



It was due, probably, to such causes as these, that your Com- 

 mittee, on commencing their work, found their tables loaded 

 with floral contributions to a degree alike undesu-ed and unex- 

 pected. The proper space allotted to the department was 

 speedily filled, vases and boquet-holders were not to be had, 

 and while many flowers of pretentious look were imavoidably 

 left to " waste their sweetness on the desert air," (desert, at 

 least, by the good old definition " where no water is,") a mul- 

 titude of others, by a shade better of fortune, were deployed 

 upon duty on the fruit tables, there to add what they might of 

 lustre to a department that, unlike ours, was nowise troubled 

 with repletion. 



Having by this expedient evoked something like order from 

 confusion, we addressed ourselves to our duty, and with how 

 much of success will better appear in the sequel. At this 

 point, we take leave to say one or two things that occur to us, 

 perhaps at the risk of being chargeable as malcontents, or per- 

 haps liable only to the tenderer reputation of innovators. 



In the first place, we cannot see what good can result to the 

 Society, or through the Society, to the public, by permitting 

 the entry, at these exhibitions, of flowers and boquets that any 

 one can see possess no merit whatever. Not that we advocate 

 the establishment of gaste or favoritism in such matters ; but it 

 has already come to the point, where the Committees are com- 

 pelled to declare a large proportion of what they examine 



