82 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



well as individuals, if they are to prosper, must stick to their last 

 and cut their coat according to their cloth. No doubt the work 

 undertaken and carried out at Chiswick and elsewhere was 

 beyond the resources which the Society could permanently count 

 upon, and this notwithstanding a voluntary subscription of nearly 

 £7,300 towards the expenses of laying out the Chiswick Gardens. 

 The election of new Fellows, which had been 328 in 1821, 

 steadily declined, due no doubt in part to the imposition of a 

 heavy entrance donation and an increased subscription, these 

 being £6. 6s. and £i. 4s. respectively. Other causes of a decline 

 in the popularity of the Society were the distrust created by 

 a serious defalcation in 1826, and the discontinuance, in 1827, of 

 the annual anniversary dinner— dinners not being so numerous 

 then as to be the unmitigated nuisance they now are. Chiswick 

 fetes or dejeuners were established to take the place of the 

 dinner ; but after four had been held they made way for the 

 exhibitions in Eegent Street and at Chiswick, with which the 

 name of the Society is inseparably connected. It was mainly 

 at the instance of the celebrated botanist Lindley that these 

 shows were established. Lindley, who had been appointed 

 assistant-secretary to the Society in 1822, was ultimately elected 

 a member of council and honorary secretary in 1858. Though 

 the large room of No. 21 Eegent Street could hold a display of 

 but very moderate dimensions, it served in those days for the 

 Fortnightly Shows, which have ever been an important and 

 enduring feature of the Society's life. 



The first Chiswick show was held in 1833, the last in 1857. 

 It is no exaggeration to say that these displays not only delighted 

 the vast multitudes who visited them, but did much to advance 

 British horticulture, and to guide the efforts of the kindred 

 societies which now flourish in every part of the United Kingdom. 

 Those who can remember these shows at the zenith of their 

 prosperity will readily admit that nothing has ever been seen to 

 compare with them, either in the variety of the collections shown 

 or in the horticultural skill they evinced. A large class of beau- 

 tiful plants, from the Antipodes, the New Holland plants as they 

 were called, then shown in specimens of great vigour and perfec- 

 tion, have almost gone out of cultivation. Where can anyone 

 now see the beautiful Pimolias, Chorizemas, Hoveas, Gompholo- 

 biums, Descbenaultias, &c., exhibited in such splendour in the 



