ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF AFFILIATED SOCIETIES. CCXV 



to you the assurances of the Council of the great interest they take 

 in your work, and of their readiness to do whatever Hes in their 

 power to promote the welfare of your Societies at all times. Your 

 Societies are a powerful factor in the gardening world, and the 

 Council recognize this. As the Parent Society the Royal Horticultural 

 Society seeks to make your work more complete, more organized, and 

 easier to carry on. As an instance of this, the Council has recently 

 instituted a " Certificate of Recognition of Diligent Interest in Plants," 

 to be awarded to children through the Affiliated Societies in the juvenile 

 classes at their local exhibitions. There is nothing like taking hold of the 

 mind at an early stage if it is to be moulded in any particular direction. 

 *' 'Tis education forms the common mind; just as the twig is bent, the 

 tree's inclined." And so the Council desires through you to encourage 

 children to take a practical interest in plants, thus helping to advance 

 one common cause, namely, practical gardening and the love of plant 

 life. 



The advantages offered by the R.H.S. to your Societies are many. 

 By our Exhibitions ; by our garden at Wisley, with its teaching and 

 students, its trials and experiments; and by our publications, we seek 

 to influence horti culturally the towns and villages where you are endea- 

 vouring to further the work; and in this localization of effort your 

 services are of the greatest value, and assist, as it were, to focus the 

 influences we radiate. Through you theoretical, scientific, and 

 practical horticultural knowledge can be spread among large classes of 

 the people, and we afford your Societies special means for these useful 

 purposes. For instance, you can be assured of really capable Lec- 

 turers by applying to any of those gentlemen on the official list, con- 

 taining some three hundred names, furnished by the Society and 

 specially drawn up for your use. Again, prepared and most excellent 

 Lectures, with lantern slides, can be had from our Vincent Square 

 oflices at Westminster, and any of your own members at all accus- 

 tomed, or even learning, to read before an audience, may deliver them 

 at your meetings. Then you possess some privileges as to admission to 

 the Fortnightly Shows at Vincent Square and to those greater, but not 

 more useful or educational. Exhibitions at the Temple and Summer 

 Shows — the site chosen for the latter next year being Olympia. 



Then the much-valued Journal and Proceedings of the Society are 

 issued to your Libraries for the information of your members. As you 

 know, each volume contains a wealth of horticultural matter, gathered 

 in from the wide world, and comprising all the most up-to-date facts 

 worth recording. This Journal is a work highly creditable to the 

 Society, and should be most useful to your members. 



Medals, and Certificates of Commendation, are also obtainable from 

 Vincent Square, and as people appreciate the recognition of hard work 

 and success by such awards, these medals and certificates should, if 

 wisely bestowed, provide great and real stimulus to horticultural work. 



These Annual Conferences also afford you the opportunity of inter- 

 change of ideas with the members representing the Mutual 



