on Gardening and Rural Affairs. 313 



2. Notices of the new and remarkable fruits which have ripened in the 

 garden. 



5. Similar notices on the. new and remarkable esculents whioh have 

 been raised in the garden. 



4. Accounts of new and remarkable plants which have flowered in the 

 garden. 



The Catalogue of the fruit department will be ready for publication 

 early in the Summer. 



The collection of fruit trees of all kinds has perhaps never been 

 equalled, and that of trees and shrubs is now scarcely inferior, except in 

 age, to any in Europe. 



The collection of esculent vegetables is continually in the course of 

 improvement. The chief objects of the Society are to simplify the nomen- 

 clature, and point out the most useful of the articles. 



The number of smaller hardy ornamental plants, with the exception 

 of bulbs, is not very large at present. It has never been intended to make 

 the collection of herbaceous plants and annuals general ; but to confine 

 it to those which are strictly ornamental, and consequently suited to a 

 garden. A botanical collection of plants has never been contemplated. 



The plants under glass are almost entirely confined to those of orna- 

 ment, and of known or expected utility. 



The progress made in the Arboretum is explained by a plan of the ground. 

 This subject we leave till our next Number. 



"The Committee have to report that the garden has received some very 

 important acquisitions by the mission which has just terminated, of Mr. 

 James M'Rae, to the islands in the Pacific Ocean, and to various parts 

 of the south-western side of South America. Very material additions 

 have also been made to the garden by the liberality of Messrs. Baumann 

 of Bolwiller, Messrs. Audibert of Tarascon, Messrs. Landreth of Phila- 

 delphia, and Mr. Floy of New York. Many objects of interest have also 

 been acquired by the liberality of the nurserymen of England and 

 Scotland. 



" The advanced state of several departments of the garden enables the 

 Committee to state that the supplies of fruits, flowers, and esculent 

 vegetables for exhibition at the Meetings of the Society will in future be 

 more abundant and varied than they have hitherto been. Of such fruits 

 and esculent vegetables as may remain after this necessary general appli- 

 cation of the produce, the Council have it in contemplation to make 

 arrangements for the sale at a reasonable price, to Fellows of the Society, 

 who may be disposed to avail themselves of such privilege." 



" The donations from the garden have been very considerable : in the first 

 place, in the supply of plants and seeds to our own colonies, and to 

 foreign countries generally, whenever it could be ascertained that they 

 were likely to be useful ; and in the second place, to the public gardens 

 of the United Kingdom. Extensive supplies of the more useful objects 

 of cultivation have been sent to the house of the Society, for the use of 

 the Fellows generally. With regard to particular distributions to members 

 of the Society by the Committee, this has also been carried as far as has 

 been consistent with the orders of the Council, " not to interfere with the 

 interests of nurserymen." In making these distributions the Committee 

 have necessarily kept in view the degree of right which the various appli- 

 cants have possessed j and they have considered that members of the 

 Society who are claimants upon the garden are of two kinds. The First 

 Class consists of those who, by donations to the formation of the garden, 

 and by annually contributing to its support (compounded for or paid 

 yearly), or by a payment amounting to 20/. or upwards (which is con- 

 sidered equivalent to both), possess as it were a double right, and these 

 therefore have the strongest claim upon the attention of the Committee. 



