464 
THE CHISWICK AND UEGENt's PARK SHOWS OF 1S49. 
tends to check over-exuberance of growth, 
and to increase the proportion of fibrous roots 
— points to secure which the practice itself is 
resorted to. The surface soil must be fine in 
proportion to the minuteness of the plants, 
and should be made tolerably firm before 
inserting the plants. A medium state of 
moistui'e is most favourable for the operation ; 
as, if too dry, the holes are made with dif- 
ficulty, and the contact injures the roots; and 
if too wet, it is adhesive, or with difficulty 
adjusted about the plants, especially if they 
are small. The operation should close by a 
moderate watering, applied in the form of 
a light shower ; larger plants may be watered 
through the fine rose of a watering-pot ; 
smaller ones through the fine rose of a 
syringe held at some distance ; and the most 
minute should be watered by thi'owing the 
water lightly over them from the hairs of a 
common clothes-brush. 
REGENT S PARK 
1849. 
THE CHISWICK AND 
SHOWS or 
The Horticultural Society of London, after 
many years of fine weather, have had two or 
three reverses, and the 'effect has been very 
detrimental as far as the numbers of visitors 
are concerned. The Royal Botanic So- 
ciety may be told that there is no prayer so 
appropriate and becoming for all those who 
wdsh the Society well, as the few impres- 
sive words, — 
" Save us from our friends." 
"For one of their servants, in a public jour- 
nal, has taken the very dangerous ground 
of comparing the number of visitors at the 
Royal Botanic Gardens with those at Chis- 
wick ; we say dangerous ground, because he 
provokes at once a comparison as to the 
quality; and however the qualiiy may satisfy 
him, the pounds, shillings, and pence, may 
not be the only consideration at Chiswick, 
The Regent's JPark is about a three-penny 
ride from the Strand and Fleet-street, and 
omnibuses run every two minutes or there- 
abouts. Mr. Marnock compares numbers, as 
if numbers were the only criterion of suc- 
cess ; and we are bound to account for the 
advantage he claims, not merely by the 
quality of the visitors, but by the object of 
the Societies. The Horticultural Society of 
London aims at something beyond the mere 
grasping at crowns. So far as it is calcu- 
lated to advance the funds and not detract 
from the object, the more company that 
attends the shows the better, but the num- 
ber must not at any time be at the expense 
of quality. The boasting of numbers w^ould 
be very well for the managers of Cremorne 
against the proprietor of the Grecian Saloon 
— both shilling admissions, without restric- 
tion. All turns then upon the locality and 
the attraction. In the Chiswick Gardens, 
there is no danger of meeting one's own 
servants, sent in with tickets from our own 
butchers, bakers, oilmen, grocers, and fish- 
mongers. There is no forcing of tickets, 
nobody dreams of canvassing for visitors, 
no butlers, stewards, and ladies' maids, are 
sent to canvass all the straw-bonnet makers, 
and milliners, and drapers, and dressmakers, 
and tailors, and hatters, and greengrocers, 
to take tickets, to get up a number. If 
the love of tlie science and the certainty of 
meeting people of station does not attract, 
no other attraction is held out ; and it needs 
not a conjurer to tell, that the lower you 
descend in the scale of society, the more 
thousands you have to w^ork upon. 
There is no doubt, that the locality of the 
Regent's Park opens the doors to thousands 
who would never reach the end of a five-mile 
journey. The Chiswick shows, on the other 
hand, are none the worse for the lesser num- 
ber of visitors ; and we hope the day will 
never arrive, when the Fellows Avill try to 
increase the number of visitors by invitations 
to people of a lower grade, in either property 
or intellect, than themselves. Many a Society 
has been lost by trusting too much to servants, 
by giving too much powder to persons of 
grovelling notions and little minds, men who 
calculate success by tlie money taken, instead 
of the objects achieved ; men, in fact, who have 
lived like a grub, eat their way like a grub, 
and who, being suddenly elevated to a but- 
terfly, merely live to leave behind them a 
succession of grubs, to do as they have done, 
to live as they have lived. "VVe do not think 
it worth while to originate comparisons, but 
if one side of the question is forced u2)on us, 
the other is forced from us ; and though we 
have never touched upon the subject before, 
we cannot help asking those who boast of the 
number of their visitors, to take a glance at 
their quality — and to recollect, that if the 
Horticultural Society would be less scrupulous 
as to the rank and station of those they admit, 
they could nearly treble the number. It 
would be more becoming of the gentleman 
to whom the management of the Botanic 
Gardens is entrusted, to chuckle over his 
increased numbers quietly, if that only is the 
good the Society is doing, than by publishing 
the fact to all the world, proclaim the great 
extent of business done in matters which 
never even formed items in the excuses 
for establishing the Society, and which have 
now usurped the place of scientific research 
and useful information. Let the Royal 
Botanic Society set up against Cremorne 
Gardens, but let the public know that such 
