592 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



the ballot is kind to any Fellow, he wiU receive all the plants exactly 

 as he has chosen, but when the ballot has given him an unfavourable 

 place he may find the stock of the majority of plants he has chosen 

 exhausted. A little consideration would show that all Fellows cannot be 

 first, and some must be last, in the ballot." 



Another grumbles because some other plant or plants have been 

 substituted, and he does not chance to want what has been sent. 

 Condition 2 explains : " When the stock of a plant chosen by any Fellow 

 has become exhausted the Superintendent substitutes if possible some 

 other plant which has been numbered in the Postscript in its place, but 

 if this be impossible he uses his own judgment. It is impossible to refer 

 again to the individual Fellow, sending him a list of plants still left in 

 stock and asking him to choose another instead, because the fresh plant 

 he would chocse may very possibly have fallen out of stock during the 

 interval necessitated by the correspondence, and the distribution to seven 

 thousand Fellows cannot be stopped whilst corresponding with each." 



Another complains that the plants are small. If he had read the 

 "Conditions" he would have known beforehand that: "Only Surplus 

 Plants raised from seeds or cuttings are available for distribution. The 

 great majority of the plants offered are therefore of necessity very small 

 and may require careful treatment for a time." 



Yet another common grievance is having to pay the carriage, and to 

 this is often added that they are not sent by the cheapest route. The 

 " Conditions " run : " The Society does not pay the cost of packing and 

 carriage. The charge for this will be collected by the carriers on delivery 

 of the plants, which will be addressed exactly as given in the Form 

 overleaf." 



So that everyone asking for a share of the distribution knows (or 

 ought to know) 



(1) That very likely he may not get just the plants he asks for unless 



he is particularly fortunate in the ballot. 



(2) That he will receive absolutely just and fair treatment so far as 



a ballot can make it so. 



(3) That if the stock of the particular thing he wanted is exhausted 



some other plant will be substituted according to the judgment 

 of the Superintendent. 



(4) That all the plants are small, more or less yearlings in fact, but 



youth with plants as with men is a fault soon overcome, and 

 personally we always find small plants succeed eventually far 

 better than bigger and older ones. 



(5) That he will have to pay the carriage. 



(6) That they will be sent by the route he himself directs. 



We have written this note because the Secretary and the Superintendent 

 feel that it is not quite fair of Fellows to write them grumbling and 

 unpleasant letters about, and on account of, points of which they were 

 definitely warned on the Form of Application itself. 



1 1 may be well again to say how this annual distribution of surplus 

 plants arose. Some Fellows visiting the Gardens noticed comparatively 

 large quantities of plants thrown upon the rubbish heap and asked if 



