FLORICULTURE OF THE MONTH. 
73 
The Royal Society for the encouragement 
of Horticulture and Floriculture in Great 
Britain and Ireland has had its initiatory 
meeting, and agreed to the Rules for its con- 
duct, which may thus be summed up. The 
subscription is but one shilling per annum, 
which it is calculated, from the great number 
of admissions, will meet every possible ex- 
pense. This is to open the door, as it were, 
to florists of all classes. The Society is 
divided into four branches, each branch to 
elect a Treasurer, Secretary, Committee, and 
three judges, and these are to form a general 
committee to meet once a quarter, while the 
branch committees are to meet once a month. 
All members may show without further 
expense as many novelties of their own rais- 
ing as they please ; and, as the raiser of any- 
thing may become a member on the payment 
of the shilling subscription, nothing is ex- 
cluded. The judges of all the branches may 
attend all, and if three be present they may 
award a certificate to any deserving subject, 
but it must be afterwards submitted to the 
meeting for approval, and if the majority of 
the meeting object, no certificate can issue. 
Here is a complete security against that un- 
fortunate jobbing which has the very first 
season ruined the character of the London 
Florists' Society, and rendered its certificates 
ridiculous. The four branches are to meet at 
four different extremes of London, which may 
be ultimately fixed at Shoreditch, the Elephant 
and Castle, Oxford-street, and Knightsbridge 
(the exact places not settled) ; these meetings 
to take place the first, second, third, and 
fourth Tuesdays in the month, and as a fifth 
Tuesday comes four times in a year, these are 
selected for quarterly meetings of the whole 
four branches, the branch committees forming 
a general committee. Perhaps nothing in the 
history of floriculture ever bid fairer to cause 
a rapid advance, because so numerous a body 
will be an excellent check on that system of 
favouritism, which has so long been the bane 
of all societies and the destruction of all con- 
fidence. What with societies set up for the 
express purpose of recommending one another's 
flowers, and giving more certificates of merit 
among a dozen persons than could fairly be 
given among five hundred raisers of flowers, 
and publications devoted to the same objects, 
the public has been preyed upon to an enor- 
mous extent, and it was high time something 
was done to counteract the extensive decep- 
tion practised upon the unwary by such 
means. It has long been the practice of jour- 
nalists to admit anything that interested per- 
sons may have written, and those works which 
may be said to be conducted by very fair 
dealers and upright men have thereby been 
made the instruments of people altogether as 
unworthy of confidence as the conductors were 
the reverse. This journal has uniformly re- 
jected everything tending to exalt a flower or 
plant, justly or unjustly, except the papers 
.written by their own competent and autho- 
rized agents, and the public has shown a con- 
fidence in the decisions of the writers, which 
has increased year by year as those decisions 
have proved unerring. There is not a writer 
interested in flower, plant, fruit, or vegetable, 
except so far as they are calculated to gratify 
the public and advance the science ; and, 
although it is not our business to say a word 
against others, let any indifferent person ex- 
amine the most independent, and observe the 
numerous papers written by nurserymen, 
florists, gardeners, and anonymously, in praise 
of different subjects brought under notice. 
The rage for cut flowers is now said to 
have abated, and the demand to have con- 
siderably lessened. There is some truth in 
the lessened demand, but it is only the same 
diminution that has been witnessed in the 
sale of all luxuries. Trade has suffered con- 
siderably : business of all kinds has felt the 
effects of continental squabbles, and the love 
of flowers has not been indulged to the full 
extent, for want of means, or from a convic- 
tion on the minds of prudent persons that 
they must debar themselves of those enjoy- 
ments which are not necessary. But the 
lessened demand appears more formidable 
among the gardeners who provide the flowers, 
from two causes, unconnected with bad times. 
There are many more growers of flowers for 
the market than there were, and they often 
overstock it with common things. This is 
one cause. Another is that common things 
no longer please the refined tastes of the 
public. There is no glut of Camellia japonica, 
however large the supply, except at the 
height of the bloom, when many other choice 
things come in. Let those who supply the 
market furnish things of higher quality — 
Euphorbia jacquiniaeflora, the most brilliant 
little scarlet flower that can be found ; orange 
and lemon flowers ; the most highly-scented 
Daphne indica odorata, whose perfume is 
matchless and flower neat and pretty ; Gar- 
denias (or Cape Jasmines), delicate, and 
beyond measure sweet ; Ixora coccinea, grown 
weakly, with numerous heads, small, on pur- 
pose, which is showy and lasting ; the various 
and numerous heaths; and we could enumerate 
many more subjects, of which too many could 
hardly be found. Now, instead of these, we 
see the commonest subjects forced, at con- 
siderable expense, and wall flowers, pinks, 
lilies, and such like, subjects merely brought 
before their time. The number of persons 
engaged in supplying markets now is greatly 
increased, by the many gentlemen's gardeners 
