444 Report on the progress of the Horticultural Society, 



just conclusion as to their comparative merits. Hence it scarcely 

 ever occurs that prizes can be given for skill of such a description, 

 and the Society has therefore been generally under the necessity of 

 confining them strictly to specimens exhibited either at their periodi- 

 cal meetings in Regent Street or at the special exhibitions held at 

 the garden. 



Attempts have indeed been made at various times to give en- 

 couragement to provincial horticulturalists, whose distance from 

 London prevented their exhibiting at the Society's shows, and this 

 more especially by means of local horticultural Societies, to whom 

 the award of the London Society's medals was entrusted ; but so 

 many inconveniences have been found to arise from this practice, that 

 it has been in a great measure discontinued. 



When first the example of the Horticultural Society of London 

 was followed by the establishment of local Societies on a similar 

 plan, the latter were few in number, and from the manner in which 

 they were supported it was thought by the then Council, that 

 they might be safely entrusted with the award of prizes in cases 

 which could not otherwise come to the London Society ; there- 

 fore under regulations published in 1826, and inserted in the 7th 

 vol. of the 1st series of the Transactions, a large silver medal was 

 annually given to each Society in correspondence. In a few years 

 however, the number of these associations increased considerably, 

 with very different degrees of importance ; it was ascertained 

 that some of them had awarded their medals in cases where 

 there was no special merit, and it became as difficult to control 

 their awards as it would have been to give the medals without 

 their intervention. It was therefore determined by the new Council 

 of 1830 not to admit any more Societies. into correspondence until 

 the result of other regulations issued relative to the awards should 

 be ascertained ; and, after some years further trial, the attempt to 

 afford any real encouragement to horticulture by this means was 

 given up as hopeless. An entirely new plan was then adopted, 



