124 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



At the same time no pains were spared at home, and the best 

 varieties of hardy fruit trees, figs, and vines were obtained 

 from the Continent and elsewhere. Even so late as 1868 the 

 Chiswick garden contained by far the finest and most complete 

 collection of hardy fruits in existence. 



Those who wish to see the vicissitudes through which the 

 Society has passed from its establishment in 1804 to the year 

 1863 should refer to "The Book of the Royal Horticultural 

 Society," by Mr. Andrew Murray, while its subsequent history 

 exists in the pages of the Society's " Journal," the " Gardeners' 

 Chronicle," and other gardening papers. 



1818. Robert Sweet, a gardener who lived at Chelsea, and 

 wrote extensively of garden plants and greenhouse flowers. His 

 monographs of the " Geraniaceae " and the " Cistinere " are well 

 known, as also his " British Flower Garden " in two series — viz., 

 (i.) 1823-29; (ii.) 1831-38. Both Sweet's " Flower Garden" 

 and Lindley's and Edward's " Botanical Register " appear to 

 have been modelled on the lines of the older " Botanical 

 Magazine " of Curtis. 



1820. John Lindley, F.R.S., the son of a nurseryman at 

 Norwich, who, early attracted to the study of botany and horti- 

 culture, exerted much influence in his time. He acted for some 

 years as the Secretary of the Horticultural Society, and was a 

 voluminous writer. His " School Botany," " Theory and Prac- 

 tice of Horticulture," and " The Vegetable Kingdom" are well 

 and deservedly known as treating of garden botany in a lucid, 

 scientific spirit. He is said to have " raised horticulture from 

 an empirical art to a developed science " (Haydn). 



Dr. Lindley and Mr. John Bateman, F.R.S., were two of our 

 earliest and best writers on orchidaceous plants, and did much 

 to encourage their cultivation. Lindley, with Sir Joseph Paxton, 

 was also the first editor of the " Gardeners' Chronicle " in 1841. 

 The Lindley Library at the R.H.S. Rooms, 117 Victoria Street, 

 S.W., is a fitting memorial of him. 



1826. B. Maund, an intelligent bookseller living at Broms- 

 grove, produced " The Botanic Garden " (26 vols.) and " The 

 Botanist " (5 vols), with beautiful coloured plates and interesting 

 letterpress. " The Botanic Garden " is a charming work, having 

 four figures on a quarto page, exquisitely drawn and coloured. 

 1828 30. S. Felton, author of a very interesting work " On 



