4 1 4 On the London Horticultural Society. 



far as to express his opinion that a coloured plate of a flower 

 should on no account be introduced into the Society's Trans- 

 actions : and although I do not entirely agree with this doc- 

 trine, vet I am decidedly of opinion that flowers or fruits 

 requiring a very high temperature should only occupy the 

 second place in the consideration of the council, and that 

 their attention should be principally directed to the improve- 

 ment of the fruits and culinary vegetables, which it is probable 

 may be brought to perfection in the latitudes of the united 

 kingdom. 



All that has been said about a paid secretary I think of no 

 value, as it is my opinion, founded on the experience of some 

 years, that business of every kind is always best and most 

 promptly executed when very few persons are concerned in it ; 

 and a hired secretary would not only be without power to 

 act, but from want of that power he would not exert his 

 energies to their full and necessary extent ; and I believe, 

 however high such a person might, stand in point of talent, 

 or however large his remuneration might be, he would not 

 so completely devote himself to the Society's service as the 

 present honorary secretary does, and I am satisfied that the 

 Fellows ought to be very much obliged to him for so much 

 gratuitous time bestowed on the business of the Society: but 

 I nevertheless cannot help remarking that his zeal has, I 

 think, carried him beyond the boundary originally intended 

 by the charter, or by a large majority of the present Fellows ; 

 and although it may be difficult, and certainly unpleasant, to 

 recede from the high ground he has taken, yet it would be 

 better to do so gradually than be let down at once by the run, 

 and which, if the present system of extravagant expenditure 

 is persevered in, must ultimately, and at no great distance of 

 time, be the case. 



If the foregoing remarks, containing my reasons for not 

 increasing my subscription, are deemed worthy of publication, 

 they may possibly, by being widely disseminated through the 

 means of your Magazine, open the eyes of many Fellows of 

 the Society to the real state of its concerns, and tend ulti- 

 mately to reduce the expenditure within the bounds of 

 prudence, and yet retain the power of pursuing every truly 

 desirable object that can be expected to be derived from it ; 

 and that this may be speedily accomplished is the sincere 

 wish of, 



Sir, &c. 



Mentor. 

 August 31. 1826. 



