iG 
FLORAL AND HORTICULTURAL SOCIETIES. 
annual dinner. This subscription should 
entitle a member to show any flower he 
pleased to mention; but if he showed any 
other Sower, he should be subject to pay the 
entrance for such other flower, according to 
the rule laid down for such purpose. There 
should be no restriction as to the distance at 
which such members should reside ; nor 
should there be any distinction between 
amateurs and gentlemen's gardeners. We 
approve of the circle round the smoke of 
London being made to separate those who 
grow under a disadvantage from those who do 
not. It is a rational distinction, and enables 
many to compete who could not otherwise 
attempt. As a whole, perhaps the best so- 
ciety that ever was established, and the 
society which has done the most real service 
to floriculture, was the Metropolitan Society 
of Florists and Amateurs. And we say this, 
not from any knowledge of the manage- 
ment (being very distant from the scene 
of its operations during the few years it was 
prominent), but from reading the reports of 
its proceedings, and from the perusal of its 
rules. Indeed, from opinions expressed by per- 
sons in and out of the trade, it was the single 
society that appeared to be looked up to as an 
authority by all others, and particularly by 
those in the neighbourhood of Sheffield, where 
committees, member?, and exhibitions seemed 
all ready to appeal to its authority in matters 
of difficulty or dispute. Why or wherefore 
that society was withdrawn some of the 
country people are ignorant ; but many 
societies profited by the leading rules, and we 
doubt if there could be any better adapted to 
keep a society together, with one exception, 
and that probably was relied on for a contrary 
effect. It was enacted that the society should 
be always controlled by the elder fifty mem- 
bers ; a plan which in theory was good, be- 
cause it was to be presumed that the elder 
fifty members would feel most interested in its 
well-being ; and due provision being made 
that the non-payment of subscription should 
lose a man his place in rotation, and give it to 
those who paid before him, it was thought 
that it would be an inducement to pay 
up subscriptions regularly. Besides this, it 
was supposed that the plan was a security 
against the evil of too much change in the 
committee, from year to year, which would be 
guarded against. None of these things ap- 
pear to have been carried out : the elder fifty 
members rapidly changed, and those beyond 
the fifty, who found themselves shut out of all 
power, were dissatisfied ; wrangles and hot 
debates were heard of, and still the society 
went on, until some of the trade (for that is all 
we heard of it our way) established another, 
and the Metropolitan >vas, so far as we could 
learn in the country, withdrawn from public 
notice, and heard no more of. But it is im- 
possible to deny that, seated as it was in the 
metropolis, supported as it was by the prin- 
cipal florists, and conducted as it was in 
the executive part of its affairs with great 
liberality, it gave a kind of spur to flori- 
culture, which nothing else did or could, and 
was of great service to horticultural science. 
That there should be a grand central society 
in the metropolis cannot be denied ; that 
this should be conducted on the most open 
and liberal principles is unquestionable ; that 
it ought to extend its benefits as widely as pos- 
sible, and be supported liberally by the trade, 
there can be no doubt, no difference of opinion; 
but there must be no packing, no mystery — 
there should be a plain, simple, well understood 
obligation to pay a subscription, and an equally 
well understood privilege enjoyed by the mem- 
bers who pay. The members should all be 
eligible to serve on the committee, and every 
annual meeting should be held for the purpose 
of electing them. As to the plan of balloting 
for members, or using any sort of reserve in 
the admission of members, it is a rock which 
many societies that have tried it have split 
upon ; for it curtails the subscriptions ; hundreds 
of good men refuse to submit to a ballot, and 
therefore will not be proposed as members. 
In a public society, intended to be conducted 
fairly, there is no occasion to keep out any 
who are disposed to support it. The open 
meetings disarm even enemies ; and when all 
things are fair and above board, there is no 
room for the exercise of ill-nature, nor any 
occasion to weigh the merits of every man who 
proposes to subscribe. Therefore do we say 
that it is injudicious to have any restriction 
upon the entry of members. Let any come 
in that will pay, and then every member is at 
liberty to look among his friends for others ; 
adopt a ballot, and every member's exertions 
to increase the society are neutralized. The 
most important of all the steps a society has 
to take, is the appointment of judges; and this is, 
perhaps, the only thing that the members should 
do in secret ; that is to say, appoint officers. 
This should be done by ballot; one day should be 
fixed for the nomination of persons to fill offices, 
and another to elect them. Every one that was 
eligible in other respects, should only be re- 
quired to be nominated and seconded. The lists 
of all these nominated persons should be printed 
and forwarded to the members, who should 
deliver them with the proper number marked 
for election, and every member (first paying 
his subscription) should deliver in the printed 
list so marked. The number of the votes 
would determine on whom the election had 
fallen, and the election should include the 
vacant seats in the committee, the auditors, 
