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enabled the Society to get redviced to 4 per cent. But tlie 

 large remaining sum of 20,000/. had been wholly drawn from 

 the subscriptions of the new Fellows. 



The new Garden was opened on Wednesday, the 5th of 

 J une. It was opened by His Eoyal Highness the Prince Consort, 

 and from that circumstance, and the sad bereavement which 

 soon followed, everything connected mth the event possesses a 

 melancholy interest. It had been Her Most Gracious Majesty's 

 original intention to have honoured the Society by opening it 

 herself in state, and planting in it a tree, but the immediately 

 preceding death of Her Majesty's lamented mother. Her Eoyal 

 Highness the Duchess of Kent, rendered this impossible. 

 ! Early in the morning of that day, however, Her Most 

 ; Gracious Majesty, in strictest privacy, accompanied by the 

 1 Prince Consort and the King of the Belgians, honoured the 

 \ Society with her presence in the grounds, insjjecting the col- 

 lections of flowers and fruit. At a later hour Her Majesty the 

 Queen of the French, and His Eoyal Highness the Due de 

 Nemours, were also admitted to a private view. At one o'clock 

 the gates were thrown open to an eager throng. 



At this time the appearance of the Garden was most 

 striking. The great Conservatory glowed with the briUiant 

 colours of Azaleas, Orchids, Eoses, and a multitude of other 

 flowers, reheved by superb groups of Ferns, and aU manner of 

 parti-coloured or gracefuUy fashioned exotics, among which were 

 exquisite specimens of the goldsmith's art in the form of vases, 

 statu.ettes, and racing cups. Beneath the long colonnades, in 

 endless profusion, extending many hundred feet, on either side 

 were ranged superb masses of Pelargoniums and innumerable 



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