♦ 



HOETICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 



Commissioners, and made the charge for admission to the Garden 

 also higher ; but the month of May was cokT. and wet, offering 

 few inducements to promenade in the Garden in the open air, 

 and tlie attractions inside the building were too many to leave 

 the visitors time or inclination to go elsewhere. The month of 

 May, as regarded receipts from the public taken at the doors, 

 was consequently a failure : the ordinary daily receipts scarcely 

 paid the exjsense of the Bands ; stiU the Society had announced 

 to the public that there would be music every day during the 

 continuance of the Exhibition, and with scrupulous fideUty their 

 promise was redeemed. When the weather was bad the Band 

 took refuge in the Conservatory, when it was good they played 

 in the Bandhouses, or occasionally in other parts of the Garden. 



Nothing had cost the Council more thought and trouble than 

 the place and mode of holding the Great Shows. The Spring 

 Shows were held in the Council Eoom and adjoining arcades, 

 but larger space was of course required for the Great Shows. 

 In the previous year these had been held m the Conservatory, 

 but this was only a temporary expedient ; the Conservatory 

 had become so well furnished with fine plants, chiefly gifts from 

 the Fellows themselves, that it was now a show in itself. 

 Independently of the trouble, waste of time, and risk to the 

 plants, there was something of absurdity in clearing away 

 one excellent show merely to make room for another. The 

 place originally designed for the Shows was the lower part of 

 the Ante-Garden, and it had been laid down in grass and left 

 nearly without trees or decorations, on purpose to be free for 

 this use. After much consideration, it was resolved that the 

 Shows should be held, under tents, in that space. This was 



