Horticultural Society and Garden. 24 i 



an extent, that I have been for a long time ashamed to show the garden to any of my friends. It 

 is obvious, that under such circumstances as those I have pointed out, the gardener can take no 

 personal interest in the welfare of an establishment in which he is a cipher rather than a respon- 

 sible officer, and that to a cessation of personal interest, apathy and neglect must succeed. 



I should, perhaps, here advert to the occupation of portions of the garden by objects of no horti- 

 cultural interest, to the exclusion of other things ; but it would perhaps be better to refer the 

 Committee, if they wish for information upon this point, to the written reports made by the As- 

 sistant Secretary to the Secretary, from time to time (often weekly), up to some period in 1828, 

 when, I think, they ceased. I particularly refer to those which were last made, and which are in 

 the possession of the Secretary. 



2. The Excess in Quantity of Writing. This is not only my experience, as in Regent Street, but 

 perfectly absurd. Every trifling occurrence at the garden is positively required by the Secretary 

 to be reported to him in writing, a system which goes so far as even this, that persons attending 

 visitors at the garden are required to communicate the substance of what they hear to the Secre- 

 tary ; a fact upon which, if the Committee entertain any doubt, I refer them to the gardener and 

 gardener's clerk. 



3. Distribution of Articles from the Garden. The chief defects in this are, that persons not sub- 

 scribing specifically to the garden, cannot procure objects from the garden, — a rule which is not 

 only unjust, but which has been the cause of the loss to the Society of a great number of mem- 

 bers; and that there is too much form observed in making their distributions. Nominally they 

 are made under the direction of the Garden Committee, to which body ail applications are sup- 

 posed to be referred ; but, in point of fact, the Garden Committee has little or nothing to do with 

 them. The distributions are made under the order of the Secretary, who also possesses a power 

 of directing, upon his own authority, any article or articles to be given away, without any refer- 

 ence to the Garden Committee. I do not mean to say that this leads to the irregularities that 

 have been imputed to the Secretary. On the contrary. I think that the distributions are con- 

 ducted generally with fairness, or, at least, that the instances to the contrary are few in number ; 

 but I think there should be no fiction in the case. It would be better if a set of fair and intelli- 

 gible rules were drawn up for the regulation of distributions, under which they should be made 

 avowedly, by order of some officer, who shall have the power of referring any doubtful case to the 

 Garden Committee for decision, and be responsible for any deviation from his duty on this head. 



A system of allowing the gardener to give away common things to the Fellows of the Society, 

 when visiting the garden, has been lately introduced, at my instance, and it has been found to be 

 attended with the happiest effects. 



4. Showing the Garden. This is at present the duty of the labourers, one of whom is in attend- 

 ance upon any party which visits the garden ; and is not only a source of great expense to the 

 Society, but is attended with very bad effects. In the first place, it is in many cases extremely 

 disagreeable ; in the second place, it rarely produces one of the ends proposed, that of conveying 

 information to visitors. The men are in general ill-informed upon the subjects upon which they 

 are questioned, and we find that they not only give no information at all, but, what is worse, inac- 

 curate information. This must, 1 think, have been apparent to any person who has ever visited 

 the garden, and been so attended on. It would be much better if the measures now recommended 

 by the Committee were carried into effect ; I may add, that the plan of labelling every thing was 

 commenced by me several years since, but was stopped by the Secretary, who appeared to consider 

 it an improper interference with his authority. 



5. Admission to the Garden. At present no Fellow is allowed to issue orders for the admission 

 of visitors, except such as have subscribed a sum of 10/., or upwards, to the formation of the gar- 

 den. Restraining admission within these narrow limits is not only impolitic, but unjust, and has 

 given so much dissatisfaction, that I have no doubt that many members have resigned in conse- 

 quence of it only. 



The mismanagement of the office in Regent Street consists, — 



1. In the excessive multiplicity of minute details, which are of no importance whatever, and which 

 cause a large expense in the shape of salaries of clerks, consumption of stationery, postage, and 

 other incidental charges, without any corresponding advantage. The intention of this detail, it 

 is presumed, has been to insure a more accurate and perfect execution of the business of the So- 

 ciety ; but this is so far from being the case, that I do not know any office whatever, in which it 

 is so ill executed. Correspondence falls into arrear till it becomes useless to maintain it, or until 

 parties become extremely dissatisfied. Minutes of the Council are frequently not made until a 

 long period, weeks, or even months, after the Councils are held ; medals and diplomas are not 

 transmitted for months or even years after they are awarded ; for example, there is at this mo- 

 ment in the Secretary's possession a medal awarded to Signor Piccioli of Florence in Feb. 1824, 

 which has never been sent, notwithstanding the repeated offers of individuals to take or forward 

 it ; another was awarded to Mr. Foster, the British Envoy at Turin, which was kept in the office 

 for I think two years, and finally delivered to Mr. Foster in person ; and there are undelivered 

 diplomas in possession of the Library Clerk, which have been sealed in Council so long since as 

 1823. 



The resignations of members are not recorded, or the steps necessary to this record are not 

 taken, for very long periods after they have been tendered ; and this is the real cause of the large 

 deductions (estimated only) which we are obliged to make from the nominal amount of our arrears ; 

 for example, Sir Richard Boroughs resigned previously to January 1826, as appears from his cor- 

 respondence, and from an entry in the Council Minutes of the 19th Jan. 1826, yet his arrears have 

 been allowed to accumulate, the form necessary for his resignation not being complete, until they 

 amount to 18/. 1 8s., at which they now stand in the Society's books. I mention this as an instance, 

 to which there are very many parallels. 



2. In the Publication of the Transactions. The Committee is already aware of the expensive 

 mode in which they have been got up ; but there is another and perhaps a worse evil, namely, 

 the entirely irregular periods at which they appear. The practice of the Society has been to pub- 

 lish two parts annually, but only one was distributed in 1828 and one in 1829, although a notice 

 was publicly suspended in the meeting-room, that a second would make its appearance in July 

 last. The plates for the part now due have been coloured for months, but the letter-press has not 

 yet been commenced ; there is also a Report of the Garden Committee still unpublished, which has 

 been standing in type ever since May last. We have lost gieat numbers of members by these 

 irregularities. 



Vol. VI. — No. 25. r 



