EXTRACTS EEOM PROCEEDINGS. 



ly 



to suggest experiments, but we must at the same time appreciate 

 the difficulties which attend them. Any expectation that the 

 Society itself can at once enter upon a large series of delicate ex- 

 periments would only meet with disappointment. "We ourselves 

 cannot fail to appreciate at once the difficulties of the subject, 

 but it is necessary also that the Members of the Society, and the 

 Horticultural world in general, should equally realize the true 

 state of the case. The successful conduct of purely physiological 

 experiments requires an innate love of the necessary research, 

 unwearied labour in the pursuit, uninterrupted leisure, and a 

 rare combination of tact and talent, patient of failure, yet confi- 

 dent of ultimate success, at once free from prejudice, and ardent 

 in the pursuit of the especial object of research. It must be a 

 labour of love or it will lead to nothing. The Society trusts that 

 the establishment of this Committee may inspire some of its 

 members with the requisite zeal ; but it must at once be clearly 

 understood that it would be impossible for it, as a preliminary 

 step, to organize a staff purely for such a purpose. It would be 

 almost hopeless at the present moment to find a person competent 

 for the leader of such a staff, even at a large salary • several assis- 

 tants would be requisite, perfect instruments, and a chemical labo- 

 ratory, while the person who might be great in one direction would 

 be almost useless in another. Such investigations must to a great 

 extent be carried out, in the first instance at least, by private in- 

 dividuals ; but the Society would not be backward in giving pecu- 

 niary assistance, where there was a reasonable prospect of impor- 

 tant results. Minor experiments would, indeed, immediately come 

 within the scope of the Society, as the reciprocal influence of 

 stock and graft, the modifications produced by different stocks, 

 varieties in the mode of culture, the influence of different kinds 

 of manure, and, indeed, a host of other matters, meteorological, 

 physiological, and practical, which may tend to the promotion of 

 scientific Horticulture. 



There is also another direction in which the Committee might be 

 extremely useful, and which would at once be acceptable to all our 

 Members and all other lovers of horticulture. It is frequently a 

 complaint that plants in collections are so badly named, and that the 

 correct appreciation of what may be called their botanical attributes, 

 in contradistinction to those which are simply floricultural, is at 

 present so very imperfect. This arises in great measure from 

 the want of useful manuals, from which the necessary informa- 



