Provincial Horticultural Societies. 287 



render it. There, exotics, rescued from Alpine snows and rifled from Araby's 

 gloves, bloomed and breathed perfume; there the indigenous plants of 

 England's sea-girt isle flourished in their full perfection ; and fruits that 

 would tempt in the richest dessert, and vegetables that pictured the health 

 they would promote, relieved and decorated the judiciously arranged tables. 

 On one hand every variety of the many-shaded geranium expanded its 

 leaves and displayed its flowers ; in contrast, appeared the rich balsam, and 

 an almost innumerable collection of the fancy -streaked tulip. These were 

 well intermingled with the useful roots and esculents of culinary use, and 

 the artfully formed exotic and hardy plants and bouquets. But we must 

 not linger longer in our promenade around the roomj we are now required 

 to furnish a report of the business of the Meeting. 



About half-past two o'clock, the Rev. T. C.R. Read was called to the 

 chair, and opened the proceedings by a neat and appropriate address. The 

 Rev. Gent, observed, that he had been very unexpectedly and unworthily 

 placed in the chair, but he trusted, that whatever faults or defects there 

 might be in him, they would not prove detrimental to the Society. He 

 needed not state to the Meeting the value and the advantages of iiorticul- 

 tural pursuits, embracing, as they did, so much that was useful and benefi- 

 cial to man, as numbers then present were much better informed in these 

 matters than himself. The Rev. Chairman then proceeded to point out the 

 great utility and pleasure derived from the study of horticulture, whether 

 followed for pleasure or as the avocation of life. To understand horticul- 

 ture properly, a considerable degree of knowledge of the physiology of 

 plants was requisite, as also the chemical effects of different soils and 

 various manures. There was a difference in the manner of studying these 

 subjects between common gardeners, and gentlemen who indulged in them 

 for their own amusement; the former made their improvements from prac- 

 tice and experiment, the latter from reading and theory. It was the object 

 of institutions like this to forward the science, and make it worthy of the 

 attention of all, whether gardeners, gentlemen, artificers, or mechanics. 

 He himself had witnessed with what pleasure many of the latter had re- 

 tired from the regular business of the day, to the cultivation of their little 

 gardens, and to the opulent it afforded a great amusement and luxury. He 

 would just call the attention of the Meeting to one subject, upon which much 

 misunderstanding had arisen. With regard to climate, many were apt to 

 think that certain plants could not be cultivated in cold, and others in warm 

 climates, and were extremely uninformed in that particular. Sir Joseph 

 Banks, however, by several experiments, where he had gradually changed 

 the tefnperature in which exotic plants had been growing from hot to cold, 

 and the contrary, had established the fact, that the plants of warm climates 

 might be made to thrive amongst us, and those of colder regions in more 

 congenial climes. The Rev. Chairman instanced the Alpine plants, which 

 had been supposed to be of a very hardy nature ; but such was not the 

 case. On the Alpine mountains they were deeply buried in the snow during 

 winter, and thus effectually secured from the effects of frost ; and, as the 

 summer approached, which was much more rapid in its advance than with 

 us, when they were suddenly exposed, it was not to the cold air, but to the 

 beams of a very hot sun. The Chairman now observed, that it did not 

 occur to him that he had any further observations to make ; and as there 

 was a great deal of business before him, which he had no doubt would 

 occupy the Meeting better than any thing he could say, he should desist. 

 He would just call the attention of the Meeting to a letter which the York- 

 shire Horticultural Society had received from the London Society, placing 

 one of its large silver medals annually at its disposal. 



E, S. George, Esq., one of the secretaries, then read the letter, which 

 stated that the medal for 1827 should soon be sent down; and that if 



