EEPOET OF THE COUNCIL. 



ix 



and keen interest in the re-establishment of examinations by the 

 Society, and himself acted as one of the examiners. It is in view of this 

 last point and after carefully estimating the amount likely to be subscribed, 

 that the Council propose to established a " Nicholson Prize," to be awarded 

 annually to the students at Wisley. 



Subscriptions should be sent addressed " The Nicholson Prize Fund, 

 R.H.S. Office, Vincent Square, London," and cheques and postal orders 

 . made payable to " The Royal Horticultural Society," crossed " London and 

 County Bank." 



The Darwin Centenary. — The Centenary Celebration of the birth 

 year of Charles Darwin is to be held at Cambridge on June 22, the date 

 curiously coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the publication of his 

 " Origin of Species." Representatives of Universities and other learned 

 bodies, together with distinguished individuals, have been invited by the 

 University of Cambridge to take part in the festival, and the Rev. Prof. 

 George Henslow, M.A., V.M.H., has been appointed to represent the 

 Royal Horticultural Society. 



Classification Of Daffodils.— At the request of the Daffodil Com- 

 mittee the Council appointed a Committee to consider the best way of 

 avoiding the confusion, and consequent disputes, likely to arise from the 

 recent multitudinous crossing, recrossing, and intercrossing of the old 

 Divisions of Magni- Medio- and Parvi-Coronati. The Committee have 

 delivered their Report instituting an entirely new system of classification, 

 which the Council have accepted, and ordered to be used at the Society's 

 Shows. The Report contains a list of every Daffodil known to the 

 Committee, together with the name of the raiser as far as it could be 

 discovered, each flower known being allotted to its appropriate class. The 

 Report has been printed in a handy book form, and can be obtained from 

 the Society's Office, Vincent Square, at a cost of Is. Experience may 

 probably suggest some further modification of the new classification, 

 which, for the present, has been experimentally adopted. 



Colour Chart. — Hardly a gardener or florist exists who has not at 

 times longed for a Colour Chart — that is to say, for a standard of 

 reference whereby he could himself name, or recognize, or convey to 

 a friend at a distance, the exact shade of colour of a flower he desired 

 to procure or had seen advertised, or wished to describe to a friend. 



The Council have lemg felt the need of such a chart, but the expense 

 of producing it has hitherto deterred them from issuing it. 



Not long since a most admirable chart, containing more than 1,450 

 shades of colour between white and black, was published in France at the 

 instance of the French Chrysanthemum Society, the price in England 

 being £1 Is. net, and, by it, it is now possible to exactly recognize, or 

 describe to a friend or purchaser at a distance, the precise colour of any 

 possible flower. 



Recognizing both the excellence and the usefulness of this chart, the 

 idea at once occurred, Could it not be adopted as an International 

 Standard, so that all lovers of flowers all over the world could accurately 

 and exactly describe to one another (no matter how far away or speaking 



