256 Obituary. 



South Devon and East Cornwall Botanical and Horticultural Society '. — A Meet- 

 ing of the members and friends of the above Society was held on Feb. 4., when Dr. Hamilton 

 addressed the Meeting as follows : — 



" The advantages of horticultural establishments, such as we are this day met to organise, are 

 too well known and too universally admitted to need any aid from me to explain or to enforce 

 them But it is not to the improvement of fruits, or the cultivation of flowers — to the sweets of 

 Flora" or the apples of Pomona — that your labours should be restricted : your views should take 



a bolder flight your exertions embrace a wider field, a more extended sphere of public utility. 



The introduction of new objects of agricultural no less than horticultural industry, the diffusion 

 of botanical as well as horticultural knowledge, and the amelioration of the condition of the 

 noor should be the leading objects of your attainment — the polar star to direct your course. 



" How dissimilar soever the pursuits of the farm, and the lighter labours of the garden may, on 

 a superficial glance, appear, their connection will be found, on a more careful scrutiny, closely 

 interwoven and intimately associated. Magnitude of operations, rather than any real diversity of 

 character constitutes the chief, if not the only, feature of distinction ; and the labours of the hor- 

 ticulturist may be regarded as bearing the same analogy to those of the agriculturist, that the ex- 

 periments of the assay master do to the operations of the smelting-house. 



" Neither is the study of botany foreign from, or unimportant to, the successful prosecution of 

 horticulture, and its real advancement to the dignity of a science. The horticulturist who is un- 

 acauainted with the elementary principles of the system of Linnaeus, or some other system of 

 scientific arrangement, may acquire, indeed, an empirical knowledge of the usual appearance of 

 those plants with which he is familiar, but he is destitute of the means of communicating his 

 knowledge to others, and is totally at fault when any new plant, or unusual form of an old one, 

 meets his view. To the physician no less than to the gardener, to the man of refinement no less 

 than the herbaiist, an acquaintance with botany is a source of endless gratification no less than of 

 practical utility : it tends to enliven the most solitary rambles, peoples with wonders every hedge, 

 and clothes in beauty the surface of the most barren rocks. But I must leave the vindication of 

 botany in abler hands ; and assign to my learned and valuable friend, Mr. Banks, the pleasing 

 task of practically demonstrating its utility. His Flora of this vicinity, announced for an early 

 commencement, will demonstrate with more force and accuracy than any thing which I can 

 advance the applicability of botany to the ordinary purposes of life ; and the assistance which it 

 affords to an investigation of the noxious, no less than the beneficial, properties of plants; and his 

 work will, I trust, be soon in the hands of all who hear me, and his labours rewarded with the 

 encouragement they deserve. , . - , „ „ , . , 



" The amelioration of the lot, and the moral improvement of the poor, are objects whose im- 

 portance must be too deeply impressed upon most of those whom I have the honour to address, 

 to require much illustration from me. In every point ol view, the garden must be admitted to be 

 a more pure as well as more salubrious school of morality than the purlieus of thepublic-house; 

 and the diversified productions of bounteous Nature, springing into life and beauty from the 

 bosom of the earth, infinitely more instructive and far less contaminating, companions than the 

 noisy inmates of the gin-shop, or the drunken revellers of the tap. While the pursuits of the 

 garden elevate the mind and purify the soul, invigorate the health and replenish the purse, the 

 orgies of the alehouse have a diametrically opposite effect, degrading the mind, corrupting the 

 heart, impairing the health, and impoverishing the purse. Hence, by promoting the innocent and 

 salutary effects of gardening among their poorer tenantry ; by contributing, in the names of the 

 most deserving, to the cottager's fund, and stimulating them to become competitors for the cot- 

 tager's prizes, gentlemen will not only promote the welfare of their own tenantry, but, by 

 awakening a taste for the innocent and healthful recreations of gardening among the neighbour- 

 ing peasantry, reform their habits, elevate their morals, and improve their condition : teaching 

 them to become independent of the soul-debasing, spirit-breaking aid of parochial charity, and 

 thus relieve our parishes of one of their most oppressive burdens, the poor's rate. 



" In the prospectus drawn up as a preparation for our present Meeting, and circulated to a wide 

 extent the utmost caution has been observed to shun a rock which threatens to prove fatal to the 

 Horticultural Society of London, and will, I fear, injure our sister society at Exeter — the esta- 

 blishment of a garden for experimental purposes ; with the whole of the endless, and worse, I 

 fear than profitless, expenses such appendage necessarily demands. Besides the endless drain 

 which it would prove to the funds of the Society, it would become a too fertile source of noxious 

 jealousies and perpetual feuds, tending to the disorganisation of your body, and the frustration of 

 your views ; while all the essential purposes of a garden can be obtained not only more cheaply, 

 but also more effectually, and with infinitely more advantage to the public, through the exertions 

 of private individuals stimulated to generous competition by the judicious allotment of prizes by 

 your Committee ; as well as by the encouragement of essays on select subjects, and the diffusion of 

 horticultural knowledge through the publication of the annual volume of your transactions, under 

 the direction of your Committee. 



" A library, judiciously selected and carefully superintended, appears to me an infinitely more 

 efficient means of promoting the great end of public improvement than a garden ; while, by con. 

 centrating the disposable resources of the Society in the prosecution of one great object, a far 

 greater effect will be produced than by dispersing them in the pursuit of many." 



The Meeting ended in the regular organisation of the Society, of which Dr. Hamilton is provi- 

 sional Secretary. {Plymouth and Devonport Weekly Journal, Feb. 11. 1830.1 



Art. VIII. Obituary. 



Died, on Wednesday, Dec. 23., much regretted by all who knew him, and par- 

 ticularly by his numerous professional friends, Mr. John Gould, aged 46 years, 13 years Superin- 

 tendent of the Royal Gardens, Windsor. He was a skilful horticulturist, and in the growth of the 

 cucumber excelled by none, his system forming a new era in the early culture of that esculent. 

 He was an enthusiastic florist, as the annals of the Windsor and neighbouring Florists' Societies 

 will show, taking the first prize upon almost all occasions. To his zealous exertions may be 

 attributed the establishment of the Windsor Horticultural Society. — J. P. Burnard. Formosa 

 Cottage, Holloway, Jan. 17. 1830. 



