140 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



1 SXAM [NATIONS IN HORTICULTURE, 



1.— EXAMINATION OF EMPLOYES IN PUBLIC PARKS, 

 Januaky 13, 1908. 



The Third Annual Examination by the Royal Horticultural Society of 

 the employes in Public Parks and Gardens was held on January 13, 1908. 



As previously, the examination was partly written and partly 

 vivd voce, occupying three hours and twenty minutes. It was held at 

 the Society's Hall in Vincent Square, Westminster. 



One hundred and thirteen candidates entered their names. 



The results of the 1908 examination are highly gratifying to the 

 examiners, and will be equally so to the Council of the Society, and to 

 the London County Council, at whose suggestion this annual test for 

 Public Parks Employes was started three years ago to stimulate 

 intelligent observation and interest in public garden work. While it is 

 to be expected that each year's results will show an improvement on the 

 year preceding, the pronounced and rapid progress shown in the present 

 examination was beyond our anticipation, and therefore the more 

 encouraging to the examiners and the examined alike. Firstly, the vivd' 

 voce questions were, by most candidates, excellently answered, and high 

 marks all round secured. This prepared the examiners for a similar excel- 

 lence in the written section, but though this ideal was not quite realised, 

 nevertheless the worked papers were decidedly in advance of former 

 years. Still we are confident that an even higher standard of excellence 

 should be attained ; and, that future candidates may have some guidance 

 in preparation, and may know how their predecessors have failed, the 

 following criticisms are offered on this year's papers, which, with the 

 remarks made by the examiners in 1906 and 1907, and issued with 

 the report for those years, should prove helpful. 



The examination exposed the difficulty surrounding the use of 

 botanical names and terms, and these are necessary because the English 

 names differ so essentially in one part of the country from those in 

 common use in another, that, unless the botanical name is also given, we 

 can never be sure what we are really talking about, or that we mean the 

 selfsame plant. If candidates would every day look up, say, two or three 

 Dames of plants with which they come in contact, and commit them to 

 memory, it is astonishing how large an acquaintance may be made with 

 botanical names in a short time, and how easy the acquirement of them 

 soon becomes. 



Again, candidates should take care to keep up their elementary school 

 education. This most fail to do, as proved by the answers to questions 

 and 1 I, which only involved some very simple arithmetic. The 

 majority dared not attempl the questions, though they were very easy, 

 and, of those who did, many failed in accurate working, and in question 

 1 I omitted to divide an otherwise correctly figured answer by 3^, con- 



