394 On the London Horticultural Society. 



and who took a very active part in promoting its objects. 

 No man will take this active part without being paid in some 

 way; either in money, influence, or celebrity. Influence 

 is comparatively unbounded in extent, and consequently will 

 carry some minds farther than money ; money 3 if it does not 

 do so much, is more convenient, because it is more manage- 

 able. The best society which I have ever known is the 

 Society of Arts. I have belonged to it nearly thirty years, 

 and I believe it has done more good than any other society of 

 the kind. The late secretary, Mr. Taylor, and the present 

 one, Dr. Aikin, both paid in money, are examples of what 

 the secretary of a society that has the public good for its 

 object ought to be ; and I have no hesitation in saying that I 

 should prefer such a secretary for the Horticultural Society. 

 It is not likely that with such a secretary the councils or 

 committees would render themselves liable to such remarks 

 as those of your correspondent, because the " passive mood" 

 would not be required as the payment of the secretary, and 

 an " active mood" would be required for their own credit. 



The Horticultural Society certainly attempts too much, and 

 in several things have always appeared to me to mistake the 

 means for the end, and to be more anxious for display at 

 their meetings, and in the garden, than for benefiting the 

 country by the spread of useful knowledge or the introduction 

 of new fruits or plants. The style in which their printed 

 Transactions are got up is, I think, unsuitable for those who 

 ought to be the principal readers of such a work ; and I know 

 they have given rise to an opinion, which I have frequently 

 heard expressed, that the Society confined their views to 

 improving the gardens of the rich. I like the Transactions of 

 the Caledonian Horticultural Society much better, and I am 

 told they have done more good to the great mass of society in 

 the North than ours have done in the South. The London 

 Horticultural Society, in many things, appear to prefer the 

 most extravagant means of attaining their objects ; we see this 

 not only in their immense garden and expensive volumes, but 

 in their proposal, noticed in your first Number, to publish the 

 new plants which flower in the garden in an expensive work 

 of their own. That they have a right to do so no one will 

 deny; but would it not be more in the spirit of a society 

 having the public prosperity in view, to publish their new 

 plants in the botanical works already existing? I do not 

 make the same objection to their proposed publication on 

 fruits, though I should still prefer the fruits coming out as a 

 part of the regular Transactions of the Society, instead of 



