NOTICES TO FELLOWS. 



clxxxiii 



addressed to Mr. F. J. Chittenden, F.L.S., Director of the Research Work 

 on Scientific Matters affecting Practical Horticulture, and Lecturer to the 

 Students. 



18. STUDENTS AT WISLEY. 



N.B. — There will be a few vacancies for the two years' Course com- 

 mencing in March, 1913. Early application should be made to the 

 Secretary. 



The Society admits young men, between the ages of 16 and 22 years, 

 to study Gardening at Wisley. The curriculum includes not only prac- 

 tical garden work in all the main branches of Horticulture, but also 

 lectures, demonstrations, and Elementary Horticultural Science in the 

 Laboratory, whereby a practical knowledge of simple Garden Chemistry, 

 Biology, &c., may be obtained. The Laboratory is equipped with the 

 best apparatus procurable for Students. The training extends over a 

 period of two years, with a progressive course for each year. Students 

 can only enter at the end of September or at the end of March. Selected 

 Students have also the advantage of attending certain of the Society's 

 Shows and Lectures in London. 



19. DISTRIBUTION OF SURPLUS PLANTS. 



In a past Report the Council drew attention to the way in which 

 the annual distribution of surplus plants has arisen. In a large garden 

 there must always be a great deal of surplus stock, which must either 

 be given away or go to the waste-heap. A few Fellows, noticing this, 

 asked for plants which would otherwise be discarded ; and they valued 

 what was so obtained. Others hearing of it asked for a share, until the 

 Council felt they must either systematize this haphazard distribution 

 or else put a stop to it altogether. To take the latter step seemed 

 undesirable. Why should not such Fellows have them as cared to receive 

 such surplus plants ? It was therefore decided to keep all plants till 

 the early spring, and then give all Fellows alike the option of claiming 

 a share of them by Ballot. 



Fellows are therefore particularly requested to notice that only waste 

 and surplus plants raised from seeds or cuttings are available for dis- 

 tribution. Many of them may be of very little intrinsic value, and it 

 is only to avoid their being absolutely wasted that the distribution is 

 permitted. The great majority also are, of necessity, very small, and 

 may require careful treatment for a time. 



Fellows are particularly requested to note that a Form of Application 

 and list to choose from of the plants available for distribution is sent in 

 January every year to every Fellow, enclosed in the " Report of the 

 Council." To avoid all possibility of favour, all application lists are kept 

 until the last day of February, when they are all thrown into a Ballot ; 

 and as the lists are drawn out, so is the order of their execution, the plants 

 being despatched as quickly as possible after March 1. 



Of some of the varieties enumerated the stock is small, perhaps not 

 more than twenty-five or fifty plants being available. It is therefore 

 obvious that when the Ballot is kind to any Fellow he will receive the 



