January 17, 1865. ] 



JOTIENAL OF HOKTICULTUKE AMD COTTAGE GAEDENEK. 



4S 



WEEKLY CALENDAR. 



Day 



D.y 



ol 



O! 



M'nth 



Week. 



17 



TV 



In 



vr 



19 



Th 



20 



F 



21 



S 



23 



Sum 



23 



M 



J.U;DARY 17—23, 1865. 



Average Temperature 

 near London. 



Rain in 



last 

 3S years. 



Iry fibeds its leaves. 

 Ked Dead Xettle flowers. 

 Creepine Crowfoot flowers. 

 Groundsel flowers. 

 Suu's declination 19° 50'. S. 



3 SCNDAT AFTI^R EPITHANY. 



Asardh born, 17S5. 



Day. 

 42.5 

 4i.6 

 42.9 

 42.4 

 43.6 

 44.4 

 44.8 



Nisht. 

 30.6 

 31.3 

 30.4 

 31.0 

 32.4 

 32.7 

 32.9 



Mean. 

 96.6 

 36.9 

 36.6 

 36.7 

 38.0 

 38.1 

 3S.S 



Days. 

 13 

 15 

 17 

 14 

 17 

 16 

 17 



Son 

 Kises. 



m. h 

 Oafs 

 59 7 



Sun 

 Sets. 



h, 

 21 af4 



Moon 

 Rises. 



Kooa 

 Sets. 



m. h. 



46 10 



49 11 

 morn. 



54 



57 1 



1 



4 



49 9 



10 10 



33 10 



59 10 



29 11 



3 \ after. 



4 I 51 



Moon'E 

 Age. 



20 

 21 

 22 

 ( 

 24 

 26 



Clock ' T^ ..f 



m. s.- 



10 29 



10 48 



11 7 

 11 25 

 11 41 



11 53 



12 13 



17 

 18 

 19 

 20 

 21 

 22 

 23 



From observations taken near London di 

 temperature 31.6'', Tbe greatest heat was 

 of rain was 0.63 inch. 



uring the last thirty-eigbt years, tbe average day temperature of tbe weet is 43. 3^ and its night 

 6J° on the 19th, 1S28 ; and the lowest cold, IJ" below zero, on tbe 19tb, 1333. The greatest fall 



BOTAL HOETICULTUEAl SOCIETT. 



HEEE is still some liope for 

 tlie Koyal Horticultural So- 

 ciety. iXotwithstanding tlie 

 1 eflbrts that incompetence, 

 mismanagement, and tinker- 

 ing liave made to render it a bye- 

 ■word in everybody's moutt, and 

 nottritlistanding tlie degraded 

 position to whicli it has conse- 

 seqnently fallen in the opinion of 

 all horticulturists, both at home 

 y^ ' ^ and abroad, there is hope for it 



■'S V*T~, ^,^^ still. There appears, by the steps 



"%■ i V«f ^ that are about to be taken, to be 

 an indication of a retui'n to the 

 legitimate objects of the Society, 

 and, therefore, a prospect that, 

 by proper management, and a 

 thorough appreciation of the pur- 

 pose it was instituted for, we may 

 yet see it taking the position it 

 ought to occupy in the horticultural world, and which it 

 never ought to have lost. If there ever was a society 

 attempted to be destroyed, that was the Horticultui-al 

 Society of London ; and unless it had possessed an 

 amount of vitality that even the gross mismanagement 

 and incompetence to which it has lately been subjected 

 could not destroy, it must long ago have gone the way 

 of many another good institution, which, unfortunately 

 for itself, could not bear up under such iniiietions; By the 

 " Proceedings " that have just been issued, we find that the 

 three gentlemen whom the '•horticultural party" voted 

 out, but who tenaciously clung to their seats in defiance 

 of the Charter, at the election of 1864, have seen it their 

 duty to resign, so that there will be, at the next election, 

 an opportunity of having Sir .Joseph Paxton, Sir Arthur 

 Buller, and !Mr. George F. Wilson, in the place of Sir 

 TVentworth Dilke, Bart., Mr. John Glutton, and Mr. 

 John Lee. Of Sir Joseph Paxton we need say nothing ; 

 his horticultural feelings and tastes are weU known. Sir 

 Arthur Buller is, we believe, an ardent horticulturist, 

 and well qualified for such a position ; and we can speak 

 confidently of Mr. George F. Wilson, FsE.S., whom we 

 know to be not only an enthusiastic and successful horti- 

 culturist, but a gentleman of excellent business habits, 

 and great scientific attainments. All of these gentlemen 

 we regard as the type of what ought to constitute the 

 Council of the Society. 



But there are two other vacancies, caused by the resig- 

 nation of Sir Daniel Cooper, Bart., who, on leaving for 

 Australia, read and left behind him a protest against the 

 culpable mismanagement of the Society, and the objec- 

 tionable system of dictatorship which has crept into the 

 administration of the Society's affairs ; and by that of 

 Mr. S. Holmes Godson (not Gordon, as the Assistant 

 Secretary has printed it in the balloting papers), who 

 No, 199.— Vol. Vlll., New Series, 



resi<rned, as he stated at the last meeting, because of the 

 offensiveness of the Assistant Secretary, who refused to 

 allow Mr. Godson, though a member of the Council, to 

 inspect the accounts without the sanction of Mr. Cole. 

 In the room of these gentlemen the names of Mr. B. T. 

 Brandreth Gibbs, of Halfmoon Street, Piccadilly, and 

 Mr. Andrew Murray, the late Assistant Secretary, are 

 proposed. In Mr. Gibbs, whose administrative ability 

 has long been apparent in the management of the Smith-- 

 field Club Cattle Shows, we shoidd expect to find a valu- 

 able addition ; and of Mr. Murray we have only to say, 

 if his qualification to sit on the Council rests on the way 

 in which he has filled the office of Assistant Secretary,, 

 it is poor indeed. 



But who is the Hon. Edwin Portman, who has been 

 appointed Assistant Secretaiy in the room of Mr. 

 Murray ? Where did he earn his horticultural honours ? 

 It is usual to throw such an appointment open, so that 

 a choice for the best man may be afforded ; bnt here there 

 has been no such opportunity. There may be men in 

 the horticultural world who are in every way qualified 

 for such an appointment, but we are not aware that they 

 have had a chance of offering their services to the So- 

 ciety. It may be, however, that the Hon. Edwin Port- 

 man is a very competent person ; that he is an experienced 

 gardener ; that he can direct horticultural experiments ; 

 prepare show schedules ; wi-ite botanical names correctly ; 

 lectjure on vegetable physiology ; tell the amount of heat 

 that will be generated from a given quantity of four-inch 

 pipe by a ton of Wallsend coals ; and he mai/ be able to 

 recover the Society from its present difiiculties : but that 

 is not the point. The office ought to have been thrown 

 open, and the best man chosen from among the candi- 

 dates, of whom the Hon. Edwin Portman might have 

 been one, and if he were the best, the FeUows of the 

 Society would have known it. 



Yet we feel justified in stating that the horticultural 

 horizon begins to brighten. We believe this season will 

 see an indication of a desire to do something for pure 

 hortictdture. Already a committee has been appointed 

 for the direction of Chiswick Gai'den, from which we 

 presume it is to be restored to its former attractiveness, 

 and gardening experiments are to be carried on in such 

 a way as to give evidence that practical horticulture is 

 not any longer to be neglected. With such men as we 

 hope to see elected at the next annual meeting, and with 

 those of the former Council who remain, we feel sanguine 

 for the future ; but that feeling will only be indulged in 

 so long as we know that the Society is governed by a hor- 

 ticultural CouncU, and not by anon-horticultural dictator. 



FLOWEES OF THE PAST SEASON. 



EOSES. 



Weee I to be asked my opinion of those charming 

 young debutantes, Lady Cicely Crinoline or Miss Clara 

 Montgolfier, my answer would materially depend upon 

 the time of the year when I saw them. If when their 

 mammas (with as much care as John Scott would 

 Ho. 851.— Vol. XXXIII., Old Seeies. 



