•21-2 



JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Beddome, and a small company of enthusiastic gardeners — amateurs, pro- 

 fessionals, and trade alike — all, in fact, who would consent to make 

 u Horticulture pure and simple " their motto and their aim, as far as the 

 Society was concerned. All through 1887, plans for reformation and 

 renovation were discussed, and in February 1888 a new Council was 

 elected, with Sir Daniel Morris, K.C.M.G., Honorary Treasurer, and the 

 Rev. \V. Wilks, M.A., as Honorary Secretary. The new era of the Society 

 began with the relinquishment of the Gardens and offices at South Ken- 

 sington, and the establishment of the Fortnightly Shows in the Drill Hall 

 of the London Scottish Volunteers at Buckingham Gate, and of the offices 

 at 117 Victoria Street, Westminster. 



At the close of 1887 the Society was in debt £1,152, and the total 

 number of the Fellows was 1,329, of whom only 773 were Subscribing 

 Fellows, and 556 Life Fellows, the whole of whose commutation money 

 had been spent at South Kensington, and who, consequently, brought in 

 no income whatever. How little the then existing Fellows appreciated the 



Fig. 50. — The Flora Medal of the Society, 1836. 



return to a purely horticultural policy, is shown by the fact, that at the 

 beginning of 1888 no less than 221 of them resigned, leaving a total of 

 only 1,108, of whom 556 were Life Fellows, and only 552 were annual, 

 i.e. Subscribing Fellows. The subscription income of the Society in 

 1887 amounted to only £1,938, which was raised to £2,894 by the sale 

 of various tilings belonging to the Gardens, the general result being that 

 the new Council had to take over a debt of £1,152, an annual expenditure 

 of £8,500, and a subscription income of less than £2,000 a year. 



Such was the position of affairs at the end of 1887, when the newly 

 elected Council and Officers undertook the apparently hopeless task of 

 rescuing the old Society and reconstituting it upon its original and 

 purely horticultural basis. And that their task was not an easy or 

 a cheerful one may be gathered from the fact, already mentioned, that 

 out of the small number of 773 Fellows on whom alone they could 

 depend for income, no less than 221— representing at least £600 a year — 

 at once resigned. 



