February 17, 1863. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



129 



(a« they say in Prarl Street) to accommodate his friends ; and 

 his being only a branch from the tree at 15, John Street, the 

 seeds, on trial, will prove good. American and European 

 flower-seeds just received. Bouquets prepared for the ladies in 

 the neatest order. Catalogues gratis. Gentlemen supplied with 

 gardeners, &c. — Gbant Thoebubn." 



In 1833, on which occasion we saw him, he revisited his 

 native land, and one of the most touching chapters in his 

 journal, entitled "Men and Manners in Britain," is that in 

 which he narrates a gathering at his native town of a Belect 

 twenty-five, " the majority of them my school-fellows fifty years 

 ago," and from whom he parted to meet no more, with " Auld 

 Lang Syne." That volume was published in 1835, but the year 

 previously had appeared his "Forty Tears in America," which 

 met with a very rapid sale, and lured him to repeat himself more 

 than once ; for his " Fifty Years' Reminiscences," published in 

 1815, and his "Life," in 1852, are only versions of his first 

 literary production. 



As we recorded last week, this exemplary man died in 

 America last month, and within a few weeks of completing his 

 ninetieth year. 



THE EOYAL HOETICTJLTUEAL SOCIETY. 



The annual Meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society was 

 held at the reoms at South Kensington this day week. A report 

 of the proceedings will be found in another portion of our 

 present Number ; but as our space is too limited to introduce 

 the whole of the report of the Council, including the statement 

 of accounts, we shall refer to them in the few observations we 

 now intend to make. It has always been a great disadvantage 

 that the Reports of the Council could not be procured till the 

 Fellows entered the room on the morning of the Meeting, and 

 only a few minutes before the chair waB taken. It was utterly 

 impossible for any one during that brief space to make himself 

 sufficiently master of the financial statements so as to qualify 

 him for making any observations on the upward or downward 

 progress of the Society ; and several of the Fellows at this 

 Meeting feeling this, it was very properly resolved that in future 

 the Reports be prepared a week before the day of meeting, and 

 that any of the Fellows may be furnished with them on appli- 

 cation. 



Before the day of meeting vague rumours were afloat that the 

 finances of the Society were again in a precarious condition, 

 that notwithstanding the large amount which had been received 

 during a season which for length and splendour few may live to 

 see the like again, all was spent, and that the Society would 

 have to raise money on loan to enable it to carry on even for the 

 present year. We were, however, pleased to hear from the 

 Chairman that although " the Council would be glad if any- 

 body would advance them some money, for he had no doubt 

 they could spend it ; still, so far from requiring to borrow, 

 they had £6000 or £7000 in hand." This, doubtless, was a 

 more cheering statement than the one which we had heard ; 

 bur, cheering as it might hare appeared to the Meeting, the 

 impression it made on our mind was one of blank disappoint- 

 ment. It appeared by the statement that the receipts on 

 Revenue Account had been £31,059 6?. Id., and on Capital 

 Account £17,021 14*. 3d., making in all £48,081 0*. 4,d. ; and 

 we certainly expected to have heard that the Society had at 

 their credit a sum beyond comparison greater than that stated 

 by the Chairman. Twelve months ago we were told that the 

 Society had nearly £16,000 of invested capita), and we had been 

 living in the fond delusion that this was still safe in India deben- 

 tures or o'her equally safe security ; but when we are told that 

 not only this and the whole of the £31,000 Revenue have vanished 

 with the exception of £6000 or £7000, we naturally feel a strong 

 measure of disappointment. 



The statement, however, seemed satisfactory to the Meeting, 

 for then the subject dropped, and the business was mainly con- 

 fined to the complimentary expressions towards the Council 

 from Colonel Challoner and Mr. Bateman, and to those less 

 complimentary from Mr. Carter Wood. These, however, are 

 small matters in comparison to the more vital question of 

 finance, which ought to form one of the leading subjects at such 

 a meeting. It is one which has always been uppermost in the 

 affairs of the Society ; and as the Fellows have an opportunity 

 only once a-year of meeting to discuss them, every facility ought 

 to have been provided to enable them to do so. 



The accounts appear to us to be very complicated. Last 



year they were arranged under four heads ; this year they form. 

 nine. Last year we had a statement of " Assets and Liabilities," 

 this year we have none ; but are obliged to wade through a 

 maze of facts, figures, and cross entries to our great confusion 

 and bewilderment. 



After devoting a considerable amount of time, and no small 

 application, we have endeavoured to do for our readers what the 

 Council have failed to do for the Society ; and have presented in 

 the following statement what we conceive to be the actual con- 

 dition of the finances. We have in fact prepared an account,, 

 showing the available assets and liabilities, with the view of 

 finding out where the £6000 or £7000 are, which the Chairman 

 Btated were still at the disposal of the Society. 



Assets. 



£ s. a. 



On capital account 7200 



Balance on private ac- 

 count 485 1 10 



Ditto on composition ac- 

 count 5469 6 8 



Dittoin handset account- 

 ant 5 19 3 



Ditto in hands of the 

 superintendent 146 8 



£13,306 15 9 



Liabilities. 



£ s. 



On capital account 241 14 



Balance against ditto 7871 19 



On private account 1755 7 



Balance on rent account. 293 5 

 Balance 3141 9 



£13.306 15 2- 



Balance in favour of the 

 Society 3141 9 



Such, then, is what we conceive, after all the investigation we 

 can give to the subject, to be the real state of the Society's^ 

 finances ; and that instead of between £6000 and £7000, there 

 is but a trifle over £3000, out of an income of £48,000 ! 



The next question that naturally follows is, Where has all the- 

 money gone ? This we have not time nor space to enter upon 

 at present, but next week we shall endeavour, if possible, to- 

 clear up this point also. 



COUNTEY MEETINGS OF THE EOYAL 

 HOETICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 



I am quite pleased with the article in your impression, February 

 3rd, from the pen of Mr. Anderson with regard to the esta- 

 blishing of a horticultural society of a migratory character. 

 His remarks are to the point ; and I, for one, have no doubt 

 such a society would he found to work well, either in connection 

 with present local societies or by itself. Like all others it only 

 wants a beginning. 



Could not the present Royal Horticultural Society hold a 

 meeting — say at York, in connection with the present year's fete 

 held there, which your correspondent does not mention in his list, 

 although 1 believe second only to the great shows in London, as 

 the advertisement says, and very superior to many held under 

 Royal auspices there ? As a proof of this I may say that one of 

 the London exhibitors, who invariably takes the lead in the 

 open class for Pelargoniums, was signally defeated at York. — 

 Ebobactjji. 



CULTIVATION OF GLOXINIAS. 



We admire some plants for their handsome foliage, other? 

 for the beauty and size of their flowers, and some tor their 

 graceful habits of growth ; but when we find these three good 

 properties combined in a great measure in the Gloxinia, we are 

 rather surprised that it is not more generally appreciated and 

 cultivated. Its fine, rich, trumpet-like flowers — either of distinct 

 colours, white, erimson, blue, purple, or pink, striped, mottled,, 

 edged, or blotched with carmine, blue, bright rose, and blush — 

 either rising boldly above or resting on its fine, rich, velvety 

 large, and beautifully-veined foliage — give to the whole plant 

 when properly managed, a fine, massive, and graceful appearance, 

 like a bouquet handsomely and artistically arranged. 



Although Gloxinias generally receive the same treatment as 

 other tropical plants, and at Kew they succeed admirably in a 

 stove temperature, nevertheless, amateurs and others who have 

 a warm greenhouse and a frame heated by dung can grow them 

 to as great perfection as where they are allowed a higher 

 temperature. 



Sow the seeds in pots of light sandy peat in February ; fill 

 the pots half full of crocks, over which place a layer of moss and 



