SPRING MEETING. 255 



The fourth. Henwood gold medal was awarded to Mr. Rupert 

 Vallentin for his valuable papers on Pelagic Life in the Falmouth 

 neighbourhood. Mr. Vallentin has for some years been a 

 contributor to the journal of papers on his researches and 

 observations, the value of which may be seen from the U.S. 

 Commissioners having written to us about them. To the Press 

 the Institution continues to be indebted for the excellent reports 

 of its meetings and for occasional notices of its progress. The 

 issue of No. 45 of the journal brings to a completion an interest- 

 ing volume, which fully sustains the reputation of our publication 

 and contains many papers of special interest. 



Mr. WILLIAMS ON GARDENING. 



At the conclusion of his formal address, the President said 

 he had been invited to speak about the daffodil. He had always 

 been rather shy of putting forward the plea of ignorance as one 

 for not doing something, because, in practice, it meant a statement 

 that one had murdered his opportunities. Looking back over 

 the Journals of the Institution he found that men had felt 

 themselves at liberty to speak on pretty nearly any subject that 

 had any real connection with things which were Cornish. 

 Speaking on the Narcissus he would rather generalise, and give 

 his reasons as a gardener, or as one who was fond of gardening, 

 for having followed that family in particular, its habits, and its 

 mode of growth. There were in Cornwall many modes of 

 earning a living, many ways of attempting to enjoy oneself, and 

 the two terms were intimately associated. They were coming in 

 Cornwall to be indebted to the money which was brought here 

 by those who came in search of enjoyment, more than, 

 perhajDS, to any other set of people. There was no way of 

 enjoying oneself, or of seeking profit, coming more to the front 

 each year than the taking advantage of the readiness with which 

 men might, in this corner of England, follow the pursuit of 

 gardening. The profit was in some measure problematical, but 

 there were some men who had done well out of it, and he hoped 

 there would be many more, but the pleasure, if they set to work 

 in the right way, was certain to come to them. In the county 

 they had a climate for gardening purposes absolutely unequalled 

 in G^eat Britain. No less an authority than Mr. Chas. Robinson, 



