Foreign Notices. 265 



Art. II. Fortdgii Notices. 

 ENGLAND. 



Exhibition of the London Horticultural Society, May 2ith, 1845. — We 

 now have the pleasure of laying before our readers the account of the first 

 exhibition of the Society for the season, and we believe we cannot fill our 

 pages with anything more interesting. If there was any evidence needed 

 of the onward progress of Horticultural science, this, if nothing else, would 

 afford it. Without occupying space with remarks, we copy the following 

 from the Gardener'' s Chronicle : — 



Whoever had the good fortune to be present at the exhibition of Flowers 

 and Fruit, last Saturday, in the garden of the Horticultural Society, must, 

 if he was at all acquainted with gardening, have been most especially struck, 

 not only by the great quantity of beautiful specimens, but also by the gen- 

 eral absence of bad ones. Only a few years ago exhibitors were proud of 

 one single finely-grown plant in a collection of forty ; now they are ashamed 

 of an indifferent one in the same number. In the beginning of these annual 

 meetings, people claimed credit for that sort of skill which consisted in pro- 

 ducing a few forced Kalmias and a dozen miserable Roses flowering in pots ; 

 no gardener could now venture to face the ridicule which their exhibition 

 would produce. 



As this change has been visibly connected with the competition at Chis- 

 wick, it shows conclusively how important are the effects eventually pro- 

 duced by a judicious distribution of rewards to deserving men ; and that 

 public bodies should not be discouraged if their first attempts at producing 

 improvements are unattended with all the success which sanguine persons 

 might anticipate. It is evident that the true course to take in all such cases 

 is, first to determine what it is desirable to accomplish, and then to persevere 

 in oflfering premiums until the object sought for shall have been gained. 

 Doubtless, money is apparently wasted in this operation ; and sums may at 

 first be paid which are far beyond the merit which they reward. But the 

 mere fact that moderate success gains in public immoderate distinction is 

 sure to excite ambition, and to stimulate to the utmost whatever talent the 

 country may contain. 



But this is very far from being the only great result. It may be doubted 

 whether it is even the most important. Another effect is to render common that 

 kind of skill which, without public competition, would continue to be confined 

 to a few, as it always was before the system of great annual exhibitions was 

 acted upon. Publicity is fatal to the laggards who abound in all walks of 

 life. A dull-witted or incapable gardener, who goes on in the ancient fash- 

 ion, letting alone what he calls " well," and never striving after improve- 

 ment, is either ruined by the activity and skill of his neighbors, or is roused 

 into exertion, and bestirs himself to equal them. A country gentleman who 

 finds his fruit and his flowers, and his vegetables, inferior to those of his 

 friends, will naturally take means to call forth his gardener's capabilities, 

 or, finding none, he exchanges him for a better man. Under the influence 

 VOL. XI. — NO. VII. 34 



