538 Letter on the Management of the Garden 



malcontents ? Members are tired of seeing two or three acres devoted to 

 ^osa Sabini and jRosa Donnn and their supposed varieties, and the clerk's 

 time devoted to record their supposed names. Did you hear of the poor 

 man who was set to taste three hundred and sixty-five sorts of potatoes, at 

 one sort per day, and then to write a description of the flavour of each — a 

 pigeon a day for a month they say kills a man — but to carry the flavour 

 of two shades of a variety of a red champion or an ox noble on the tongue 

 from one day to the next, so as to form an estimate of the diflxn-ence of 

 taste between each, and then to distinguish both from the taste of a ladifa 

 finger, and so on through the whole series, and write down his sensations 

 in a journal, was too much even for a poor Scotchman : he rebelled, and 

 was dismissed as contumacious, after having tasted through a quarter of the 

 task — at least so goes the story, or rather so says the man 



" If a new plant arrives, say a caraeUia from China, I, a simple member, 

 can know nothing of its coming; but if I had a friend in the Council, or, 

 what migtt be better, one of the officers, I should soon know, and he would 

 say, " apply in time, and you will get it first;" so that the result is, when 

 there is any such rarity, such as a new camellia, a paeony, Pinus Lamberti, 

 &c. &c., these are all bespoken before those members who have no friencl 

 in council or at court know any thing of the matter. The same mode of 

 distribution takes place with regard to the nurserymen. Ask such re- 

 spectable men as Mr. Knight or Mr. Mackay, what their opinion is of the 

 benefit done by the Society, and what are the advantages said to be de- 

 rivable by the nurserymen from the distributions. Ask them what they have 

 received. Look to the selection of the nurserymen, who are put on fas 

 practical men) to manage the affairs of the garden, and say if a real and 

 judicious selection has been made, and what possible advantages are derived 

 from their superintendence or assistance ; in fact, if it is even known that 

 they interfere at all. One very respectable nurseryman admitted to me, 

 that, though on the Council, except in giving an opinion on the choice of 

 the site of the garden, he never ventured to interfere 



" What have the Society done to diffuse science at a cheap rate ? Why 

 they refused to let their Transactions be abridged, or at least I know their 

 secretary wished it not to be done. They publish what they idly suppose 

 worth printing, at a price perfectly beyond the reach of the middling class; 

 they do nothing for the education of the men they employ, nor generally 

 for those connected with the pursuit of gardening. 



" With respect to the rules for the management of the garden, they have 

 been framed in the true mercantile spirit : those who pay most shall get 

 most. The hope of gain, and a feeling of selfishness, have acquired the So- 

 ciety many as subscribers, who, I am quite sure, would never have thought 

 of belonging to a scientific institution, but for the hopes of getting back 

 their money in money's worth. Many have paid their additional guinea to 

 the garden, or laid down their 10/. or 20/., in the hopes of reaping the fruit 

 of it, notwithstanding so great a man as Aristotle has said that money is 

 barren. But what has been the result? Eveiy one of them has been dis- 

 appointed, every one grumbles, and many take out their names ; indeed, I 

 think they have not been fairly dealt with. You and the Council have 

 expressly introduced the mercantile spirit and feeling in your dealings with 

 the public, and your members and you ought (particularly seeing that you 

 have a royal charter) to have kept up the true old mercantile spirit, rather 

 than the tradesman-like tone of the present day. You say expressly, that 

 the surplus of new and rare plants shall be distributed amongst the nursery- 

 men, and amongst the members according to the amount of their siibscrij)- 

 tion — now mind that. Here is a direct encouragement to subscribe liberally 

 — there is to be a quid pro quo for all paid — tlie subscribers to the garden 

 are to have the produce of the garden ; of which, however, the old members, 

 who set the affair afloat, arc to have none 



