COMMONPLACE NOTES. 



591 



COMMONPLACE NOTES. 

 By the Secretary and Superintendent. 



Notices to Fellows. 



Letters and inquiries addressed to the Secretary's Office contain 

 abundance of proof positive that a very large proportion of the Fellows 

 never even glance at the "Notices to Fellows" always inserted at the 

 end of every issue of the Journal and at the beginning of the " Arrange- 

 ments " for the current year, and also of the "Report of the Council." 

 For example, the last issue of the Journal contained amongst " Notices 

 to Fellows " an offer of Shirley Poppy seed, made by the Secretary in 

 his private capacity as Vicar of Shirley, and gave directions how to apply 

 for it. Over two thousand packets of seed have been given away, but 

 fully five hundred Fellows wrote asking whether there was any seed to 

 be given away this year ; three hundred wrote to the Society's Office 

 instead of to Shirley ; and more than two hundred and fifty sent no 

 stamped and directed envelope for return. Fellows may think it a very 

 small thing to give a penny stamp and an envelope, and the time to 

 direct it, in addition to the seed itself, but when all these things are 

 multiplied by two hundred and fifty or more it is not exactly an 

 encouragement to anyone to offer to give anything away. 



Plants. 



A matter very near akin to the last note is that Fellows will not 

 read the "Conditions" printed on the "Form of Application" at the 

 annual Distribution of Surplus Plants, and then complain about matters 

 which the Conditions fully explain. 



One Fellow who had not received the particular plants he wanted 

 roundly asserts that it is because other Fellows are more favoured, either 

 because they are personal friends of the officials or have some control of 

 the gardeners. If he had only looked at the first, third, and fourth 

 Conditions, he would have perceived the reason and been spared 

 the no doubt painful necessity of slandering the officials and the 

 gardeners. " Of some of the varieties enumerated the stock is small, 

 perhaps not more than twenty-five or fifty plants being available ; and 

 there are over seven thousand Fellows entitled to choose from the list. 

 It is therefore obvious that if any large proportion of Fellows happen to 

 choose a plant of which the stock is small the majority of them must be 

 disappointed as regards that particular plant." <: To avoid all possibility 

 of favour, all application lists are kept until February 15, when they are 

 all thrown into a ballot, and as the lists are drawn out so is the order 

 of their execution, the plants being despatched as quickly as possible, 

 after February 15, but from the number of applications it may take a 

 month or more before all are complied with." ' It is obvious that when 



