28 THE FLORIST AND 



The Treasurer submitted his semi-annual statement. 



The Committee establishing premiums presented a schedule for the Jem 

 1854 ; which being slightly amended, was adopted. 



The Secretary reported that Ellis Yarnall, of- this city, had presented a 

 parcel of horticultural objects, which had been given to him, for distribution 

 in this country, when in London, at the closing of the World's Fair ? by Dr* 

 J. Forbes Royle, of Calcutta Royal Botanic Gardens, whence those products 

 had been sent to that exhibition. 



Ordered, That the thanks of the Society be tendered to Mr. Yarnall 

 anal Dr. Royle for the gifts, and the articles referred to the appropriate 

 committee. 



Twelve new members were elected. 



A GLANCE AT REPRODUCTION OF PLANTS BY SEEDS. 



By Walter Elder. 



For the Florist and Horticultural Journal. 



How inconceivably great does the Omniscience of God appear in his 

 wonderful works of creation. In the study of botany we see that he has 

 furnished every species of plants with the powers and faculties of reprodu- 

 cing their like by seeds, in one class, to which the majority of species be- 

 long ; every individual plant is a perfect whole of itself in this respeet ; 

 which perfection lies in each and every blossom, whereas the perfection of 

 another class lies in two differently furnished blossoms on the same plant^ 

 while in a third class it requires two plants with differently furnished blos- 

 soms to make a whole ; and these arrangements are so fixed and immuta- 

 ble that botanists class them as the " eternal laws of nature," and there is 

 as little invariability in varieties as in species. In this respect, it is not m 

 the blossom but in the sexual organs where stability rests— if it were other- 

 wise, on what would animal life depend for subsistence ? Suppose that all 

 vegetation were to change sex and become abortive for one year only ; 

 what an awful desolation would ensue — it was only the wise foresight 

 of our Maker which renders these laws unchangeable. 



All cultivators of the soil should study botany, at least, so far as reproduction 

 is concerned; as it would enlighten their paths many times when they grope 

 in the dark without it. If agricultural periodicals, as well as horticultural,, 

 had departments of botany, and publishers enlist the assistance of scientific 

 botanists, they would be doubly remunerated for their extra expense by in- 

 creased circulation and the additional price their journal would command; 

 the knowledge conveyed through such papers, would be tenfold more bene- 



