HORTICULTURAL SOCIETIES. 
499 
equally on all ranks and under all circum- 
stances. For instance, there should be one 
rule, that the members of the society should 
be unlimited, and that they should be governed 
by a committee, elected by and from among 
themselves. Other rules should define the 
objects of the society, which should be the 
advancement of the science, by the award of 
prizes for the best productions shown by 
persons whose growth and property they are. 
These fundamental rules may also define the 
mode of electing officers, the times of election, 
the mode of appointing judges, and how they 
shall be qualified. The time for prizes, sub- 
scriptions, and mode of collecting or receiving 
them, and such other matters as are equally 
applicable to all places and all circumstances, 
should be accurately, carefully, and plainly 
laid down, so that, so far as the main prin- 
ciples are concerned, there should be uni- 
formity throughout the whole kingdom. The 
members of every branch should be obliged to 
declare, in the most unreserved manner, that 
they would abstain from all sorts of trickery 
themselves, and prevent it in others, so far 
as they could; that they would expose fraud 
and unfair dealing whenever it came under 
their notice ; that they would report, or cause 
to be reported, in the best way they could, 
all attempts to deceive, all instances of per- 
sons showing the productions of other people ; 
that they would do their best to make known 
all the best novelties that came under their 
notice, and promote the exhibition of such 
novelties at one or other of the branch shows, 
and wherever practicable to the London 
board, and also make known to the heads of 
their respective societies all attempts to put 
forth worthless subjects as superior produc- 
tions. That they should, in fact, pledge 
themselves as earnestly as possible to follow 
out the orders and intentions of the central 
board, that floriculture might be purged of its 
evils, the trade limited to those who became 
pledged equally themselves to do right, and, 
so far as in them lies, to prevent others 
from doing wrong. This kind of understand- 
ing, begun among only a few who were in 
earnest, would soon enrol all those who 
meant honestly, and enable amateur and pro- 
fessional florists to select those they proposed 
to deal with from such only as were members 
of the principal society or one of the branches. 
It w r ould cure the exhibitors in some of the 
great societies of collecting their fruit and 
flowers from a number of persons, and show- , 
ing the results as their own. It would pre- 
vent competitors from purchasing things at 
Covent-garden to get prizes at another garden. 
It would stop begging, borrowing, and steal- 
ing, to make up subjects for exhibition, and 
disheartening honourable persons, who, under 
the present system, see the utter hopelessness 
of contending against such mighty odds. It 
would check the growing evil of sending out 
a dozen varieties of anything, when only 
two or three are worth growing. It would 
enhance the value of the best things, and rid 
us of many that are useless. At present 
many societies so notoriously wink at the 
showing of other people's productions as 
the exhibitor's growth and property, that 
he who would show honestly may as well 
stay at home ; and the knowledge that such 
is the case, induces others, who would not 
otherwise think of such a thing, to imitate the 
example and out-Herod Herod. "We know 
one instance in which an individual's flowers, 
known to be good at all times, were excluded, 
because the owner had, to oblige a gardener, 
who never paid for it, parted from a rather 
scarce rose. The person thus excluded let 
two or three of the showers have his flowers, 
and they went in and beat all those who had 
been collecting them from all quarters. Such 
was the feeling, and such is the feeling still, 
in that society, that men, in other respects 
honourable, think it almost creditable to cheat 
the managers by showing other people's pro- 
ductions. It cannot, therefore, be too strongly 
recommended to those who wish to see the 
science upheld as respectable and worthy of 
support, to be moving in their several localities 
to get up something like a society pledged to 
be honest, and ready to co-operate with any 
central London establishment that may be 
founded for that purpose. It is a good time 
of year; and if there be any Freemasons, they 
may adopt one principle from that body with 
advantage, that of making every member's 
subscription pay a trifle to the head society ; if 
it be but sixpence a year, it would be advan- 
tageous. It makes all the members all over 
the country one general body, however dif- 
ferent may be their rank, station, subscription, 
the nature of their prizes, and the produce they 
emerge. If the members of a society pay a 
shilling a month, a halfpenny should be re- 
tained as the tribute, and the rest spent. If the 
subscription be a pound, the tribute should 
be the same, for it will pay for keeping the 
necessary registers, and enrolling all removals, 
deaths, and acquisitions of members in one 
register — for keeping up the communication 
with each other — and perhaps for printing, if 
necessary, the general register for the use of 
each separate branch. There is not a local 
society but might avail itself of this advan- 
tage, and the sooner it is reduced to some 
plan and system the better. However it be 
started, and by whatever society it be set on 
foot, it will have our support, because we 
believe some such thing to be necessary for 
the well being of the science of floriculture. 
k k 2 
