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The following Report of the Building and Appeal Com' 

 mittees will be read by Mr* J. Gurney Fowler, Treasurer of the 

 Society, and will be presented to His Majesty by Baron Sir 

 Henry Schroder, Bart., V.M.H., Chairman of the Appeal 

 Committee. 



MAY IT PLEASE YOUR MAJESTIES, 



On behalf of the Building and Appeal Committees, we 

 venture humbly to submit the following Report on the 

 erection of the building in which we are honoured by your 

 Majesties' presence tcday. 



For very many years the Fortnightly and other Shows 

 of our Society have been one of the most effective means 

 towards securing the objects we have in view — viz., the 

 diffusion of more correct knowledge of what plants should 

 be grown, and of how they may and should be cultivated. 



These fortnightly gatherings were first held at the 

 Society's early home in Regent Street, and for many years 

 afterwards they took place at South Kensington. When, 

 however, in 1887, the gardens there were surrendered to the 

 Royal Commissioners of the 1851 Exhibition, the Society 

 moved their Shows to the Drill Hall of the London Scottish 

 Volunteers at Buckingham Gate, Westminster, where they 

 have been held up to the present time. They have been 

 ever increasingly popular, and the Society has enjoyed the 

 favour and support of horticulturists, and of the public 

 generally, without interruption. 



A few years after the removal of the Shows to the Drill 

 Hall, we began to find the accommodation insufficient, the 

 Hall being at times inconveniently crowded both by exhibitors 

 (who have often not had sufficient space to stage their 

 exhibits properly) and by Fellows of the Society, and others, 

 who have not had proper facilities for seeing and studying 

 the plants shown. 



