our plantations witli trees whose ornamental appearance is only 

 : equalled by their sterling value, to create by its encourage- 

 ment new races of flowers, fruits, and even esculents, and to 

 substitute for the glass houses of that day, in which plants 

 could scarcely maintain a languid existence, structures calculated 

 to ensure a richness of growth, greater even than that of the 

 i exuberant vegetation of the tropics. 



The list of original members included the names of all who 

 in those days were most distinguished for their knowledge of 

 Horticulture. 



Its affans from the first have been managed by a Council, 

 composed of a President, Treasurer, Secretary, knd 12 members, 

 a portion of whom are changed each year. From among the 

 i3ther Members of Council the President now appoints four 

 Vice-Presidents. 



The total number of members elected in the year 1804 

 appears from the register to have been ninety-one. The Earl of 

 Dartmouth was the first President ; Mr. John Wedgwood, the 

 first Treasurer ; and the Eeverend Mr. Cleeve, the first Secretary, 

 soon replaced by Mr. E. A. Salisbury. 



In 1805 the meetings were transferred to the house of 



the Linnean Society, in Gerrard Street, Soho ; the Horticultural 



Society paying 26/. 5*. a year rent, and engaguig Mr. Price, the 



clerk of the Linnean Society, to act as their clerk also, at a 



salary of 20^. per annum. During the year it appears that 



the number of new members amounted to twenty-nine ; but 



the early records of the Society are extremely meagre, and show 



little until the year 1806. 



Judging from the scanty records which have been preserved, 



111 



