&94 Prestwich and Bury Societies. 



having received a shilling by way of donation. Their books 

 consist at present of many botanical works, comprising eleven 

 volumes of Smith and Sowerby's English Botany, Green's 

 Universal Herbal, Smith's English Flora, Withering' s Arrange- 

 ment, Gardener's Magazine, and they are beginning to purchase 

 the Encyclopaedia of Plants. 



In the town of Bury, a few miles distant, another society 

 exists, called the " Bury Botanical Society," only differing 

 from the former inasmuch as it unites entomology with botany. 

 The list of subscribers to this society contains about fifty 

 names, comprising several highly talented individuals, trades- 

 men, mechanics, and a few labouring gardeners. Their library 

 Contains many popular works on botany and gardening, 

 amongst which are, the Gardener 's Magazine, Encyclopaedia of 

 Gardening, many volumes of the Botanical Magazine, Hortus 

 Kewensis, &c, with several entomological publications. The 

 meetings of this society are held on the first Wednesday in 

 each month, for the same purposes as the preceding. 



The method pursued at these meetings is this : — Each 

 member brings what specimens of plants or flowers he chooses, 

 which are all laid on the table, without order or arrangement, 

 as nature exhibits them in a wild state : after the members 

 are assembled and seated, the president takes a specimen 

 from off the table, and gives it to the man on his left hand, 

 telling him, at the same time, its generic and specific name ; 

 this person must pass it on to the next in the same manner, 

 till it has gone round the room ; and in this manner all the 

 specimens produced, amounting sometimes to some hundreds, 

 are handed round the company, and are then selected for the 

 purpose of enriching a herbarium, or decorating a room. One 

 person is president of both these societies, at least as far as 

 the nomenclature of plants is concerned, a poor cotton weaver, 

 or, if you please, a " degraded " Lancashire operative manu- 

 facturer. 



We have several other societies of a description similar 

 to the above, established in various parts of the country, 

 which have, , besides their particular meetings, general ones, 

 at which any person may attend who feels inclined so to 

 do. By these means the indigenous botany (with the excep- 

 tion of some of the most obscure tribes of Cryptogamia) of 

 this neighbourhood is very well known; and, if our gardeners 

 were as much inclined to assist in disseminating botanical 

 knowledge as some of our mechanics are, our exotic botany 

 would be equally so ; but such an inclination exists only in a 

 very few of them. 



But I think I have written sufficient for one letter at pre- 

 sent. What use you will make of this communication I know. 



