vi PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
of additional references to the Index will be enormous, far greater, indeed, 
than was originally anticipated. 
It was also found necessary to collate the list comprising all the original 
and additional publications so far extracted, or ear-marked for extraction, 
with the catalogue of the Natural History section of the British Museum, so 
that gaps in the Kew Library might be discovered and filled. This very laborious 
work has also been brought to its conclusion. 
In August 385 circulars were dispatched to public institutions at home and 
abroad as well as to private botanists and horticulturists, inviting their sympathy 
and assistance in the endeavour to make the Index as complete as possible. 
It was suggested to them that on application they could receive a copy of the 
complete list of the works to be included in the New Index, in order ;that they 
might check it with their own annotations, and for the last three months the 
Pritzel staff has been engaged in getting this list into shape and stencilling it 
for distribution. The fact that many references in the original work have 
been found very difficult to trace, owing to imperfect or cryptic abbreviations, 
or because the titles quoted were those of papers published in periodicals, has 
complicated and retarded this part of the work very much. It is now, how- 
ever, practically •finished, and 100 copies of the List of Titles, which runs to 
about 4,000 entries, will very soon be ready for dispatch. As the titles would 
have had to be checked and standardized in any case, the progress of the work 
cannot be considered to have been impeded by this operation, except in so far 
as the stencilling is concerned. 
Having sorted the cards according to publications, their chronological or 
numerical sorting within each publication, preparatory to the final checking, 
became necessary. About a quarter of the cards have already been dealt with 
in this way. The checking itself has also been taken in hand. Among the 
works checked are some which, owing to the erratic way of the publication of 
their parts, have proved very troublesome and will require a final collation 
with the copies in the British Museum. 
The remaining task lies in the extraction of the additions, the conclusion 
of the chronological sorting, and the final checking of the cards, which latter 
promises to be the most extensive part of the whole work. 
Up to the present time £1,2.00 has been subscribed, ;^900 of which has already 
been spent in the preparation of the manuscript. The further printing and 
publication of the completed volume or volumes will require little less than 
another ^^2,500, so that it need hardly be added that more funds for the purpose 
are urgently needed if we are even to hope to begin printing next year. 
15. Deputations. — A deputation from the Society, consisting of the President, 
the Rt. Hon. Lord Lambourne, C.V.O., Mr. F. J. Chittenden, F.L.S., V.M.H., 
Mr. James Hudson. V.M.H., Mr. H. B. May, V.M.H., and the Rev. W. Wilks, 
M.A., V.M.H., visited the Birmingham Show on July 18. It was a magnificent 
exhibition and a memorable occasion, if only from the point of view that it was 
the first deputation from the Society after the war. 
An invitation from the York Gala has been accepted for a Deputation to 
visit the York Show on June 16, 17, and 18, 1920. Similar invitations have 
been received from Walsall and from Cannock, but these the Council have felt 
obliged to decline. 
16. Sugar for Preserving. — On March 4 a deputation waited upon Lord 
Bledisloe on the subject of the provision of sugar to private growers of fruit 
for jam-making. They were most kindly and sympathetically received, and, 
as a result of the representations made, the position was considerably eased, 
and a sufficiency of sugar was forthcoming for jam-making during the season. 
17. Hampton Court Gardens. — The Society was asked to nominate a repre- 
sentative to act on Sir Aston Webb's Special Committee appointed to consider 
the restoration of the Hampton Court Gardens to their pre-war condition. 
Lieut. -Col. F. R. S. Balfour, M.A., a Member of Council, was nominated accord- 
ingly. It was a matter of general satisfaction that the Committee's report 
justified the demands of the garden-loving public in desiring this restoration. 
18. Wisley.- — The past year has seen the gradual return of members of the 
Wisley staff from the war, and with it the resumption of some of those activities 
which have been almost in abeyance during a great part of the war period. 
The new Laboratory is not yet fully staffed, owing mainly to the natural hesita- 
tion of the Council to pledge the future financial position of the Society, The 
filling of the various vacancies on the staff has been a matter of the greatest 
