JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
January 27, 1881. ] 
G7 
men, and these will want extraordinary seeds. I should never 
dream of advising these to buy a collection, but the average of 
gardeners would find the collections very accommodating. They 
save much time in selecting. They introduce to notice many 
varieties of which we were ignorant, varieties which on our soil 
and with our climate do better than some which we have chosen 
in years gone by. They also bring us a larger amount of seed for 
our money than we should have if we had chosen all the extra¬ 
ordinary seeds which we fancied, or which we had recommended 
to us. 
One thing I may say therefore to those who decide to order a 
collection this year. Sum-up what it has cost you for seeds the 
last two or three years, then strike the mean, and in ordering a 
collection you may choose one somewhat cheaper, and then you 
will have more than you expected. It is quite true that these 
seed-growers do grow large stocks of the very best things which 
are profitable, and these are they which they make up into col¬ 
lections, so that the charge which people sometimes make against 
these seedsmen—that in collections they work off all their accumu¬ 
lated old stocks, whether good or not—is not true ; and when we 
think of it, it would be strauge if it were true, because to do so 
would be about the worst thing that they could do. I have never 
found it so, and I have had collections for many years for various 
sized gardens too, and I have always found them good, and many 
times excellent in the varieties sent, and much better than if I had 
gone to the trouble of selecting my own. Let me advise all those 
who do not like to trust to their own judgment, or who have not 
time to spare to hunt up special varieties, and who wish to be 
economical, to order a collection according to the size of their 
garden, and I venture to say that once having adopted that plan 
they will not return to the old way of making a selection of their 
own.— Excelsior. 
THE METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
The Annual General Meeting of this Society was held on the 19th 
inst. at the Institution of Civil Engineers, Mr. G. J. Symons, F.R.S., 
President, in the chair. The report of the Council for the year 1880, 
which was read by the Secretary, refers to subjects of considerable 
importance, and affords substantial evidence of the interest taken in 
meteorology by the scientific and general public. Amongst these 
may be mentioned the great success of the new climatological stations, 
as shown by their increased number, and by the regularity and care 
with which the observations have been made and recorded, and the 
returns forwarded to the Society. The Council also advert to the 
number of new and improved instruments exhibited at the meeting 
held in March last, to the increase in the number of Fellows, fifty- 
two having been elected during the year, and finally the numerous 
papers which have been sent to the Society from various parts of the 
world, embracing records of the climate of several important localities, 
respecting which but little has hitherto been known in this country. 
After a vote of thanks had been passed to the Council for their 
services during the year and to the Institution of Civil Engineers for 
allowing free use of their rooms, the President delivered his address, 
in which he traced the history of English meteorological societies 
from 1823 to 1880. The earliest English effort at forming an English 
meteorological society, or at any rate at securing observations made 
with comparable instruments recorded upon a uniform system, was 
made in 1723 by Dr. James Juring, who was then Secretary to the 
Royal Society. In the “ Philosophical Transactions ” for that year 
will be found a Latin address by Dr. Juring, in which he anticipates 
nearly all the conditions which are now considered essential for com¬ 
parable observations. This appeal did not lead to much being done, 
and in 1744 another attempt was made by Mr. Roger Pickering, F.R.S., 
who read before the Royal Society a paper entitled “ Scheme of a 
Diary of the Weather, together with Drafts and Descriptions of 
Machines subservient thereunto.” The Meteorological Society of the 
Palatinate was established in 1780 under the auspices of the Elector 
Charles Theodore, who not only gave it the support of his public 
patronage, but entered with spirit and ability into its pursuits, and 
furnished it with the means of defraying the expense of instruments 
of the best construction, which were gratuitously distributed to all 
parts of Europe, and even to America. One of the first acts of the 
Association was to write to all the principal universities, scientific 
academies, and colleges, soliciting their co-operation, and offering to 
present them with all the necessary instruments, properly verified by 
standards, and free of expense. The offer was accepted by thirty 
societies, and the list of distinguished men who undertook to make 
the observations shows the importance which was attached to the 
plan and the zeal with which it was promoted in every part of the 
Continent. In 1823 the first meeting of the Meteorological Society 
of London was held, and was attended by Luke Howard, Thomas 
Forster, Dr. Birkbeck, and others. After 1824 the Society languished, 
but it was never regularly dissolved. Owing to several letters and 
articles which appeared in Loudon’s “ Magazine of Natural History,” 
a meeting was held on November 15th, 1836, at which the Society 
was revived, Mr. W. H. White appointed Secretary, and regular 
meetings resumed. Application was made to the Royal Society for 
permission to compare the instruments of the Society with the Royal 
Society’s standards, and leave was granted on March 13th, 1838. A 
volume of “ Transactions was published in 1839, and among other 
articles contains one entitled “ Remarks on the Present State of 
Meteorological Science,” by John Ruskin. The cost of the pub¬ 
lication of this volume exhausted the funds of the Society, but 
in 1841 Mr. Glitch undertook personally the pecuniary risk of a 
new publication entitled the “ Quarterly Journal of Meteorology,” 
but this does not appear to have been very successful, owing to 
the high rates of postage. Shortly after this the Society practically 
came to an end. On April 3rd, 1850, a meeting of some friends 
of the science was convened by Dr. Lee at Hartwell, when the 
British Meteorological Society was established, and Mr. S. (J. Whit¬ 
bread elected President. The first general meeting of the members 
was not held till March 25th, 1851, but in the meanwhile several 
important steps had been taken by the Council. Annual reports 
were published from 1851 to 1861, and since then five volumes 
of the Proceedings and six volumes of the “ Quarterly Journal ” 
have been published. Up to 1858 absolutely nothing had been done 
towards forming a library, but in 1862 a catalogue was published 
containing about two hundred titles. In 1876 a new catalogue 
was issued, which extends to eighty pages, and contains over 1200 
entries. On January 27th, 1866, the Society obtained a Royal 
Chai-ter of Incorporation, and has since been known as “ The Meteor¬ 
ological Society.” On April 4th, 1872, the Council resolved upon 
taking a room for an office and for the protection of the library, and 
appointed Mr. W. Marriott as their Assistant Secretary. The work 
has now become so great that the Society has been obliged to take 
an additional room and to engage three computers. The subsequent 
eight years have been characterised by great progress. A series of 
second-order stations has been organised, which are systematically 
inspected, and at which strictly comparable observations are made. 
On January 1st, 1880, another and larger series of stations—called 
climatological—was started, at which the observations are less onerous 
than those at the second-order stations, but at which they are required 
to be equally accurate. Observations on natural periodical phenomena 
are also made at many places and discussed yearly by the Rev. T. A. 
Preston. At the request of the Society a conference has been ap¬ 
pointed, consisting of delegates from several other Societies, to pre¬ 
pare accurate instructions respecting the erection of lightning con¬ 
ductors. At the conclusion of the President’s address the following 
gentlemen were elected the Officers and Council for the ensuing year 
—viz., President, George James Symons, F.R.S. Vice-Presidents, 
Edward Ernest Dymond : William Ellis, F.R.A.S.; Joseph Henry 
Gilbert, Ph.D., F.R.S., F.C.S.; Charles Greaves, M.Inst.C.E., F.G.S. 
Treasurer, Henry Perigal, F.R.A.S. Trustees, Sir Antonio Brady, 
F.G.S.; Stephen William Silver, F.R.G.S. Secretaries, Robert Henry 
Scott, M.A., F.R.S., F.G.S.; John William Tripe, M.D., M.R.C.P.E., 
Y.P. Soc. Analysts. Foreiqn Secretary, John Knox Laughton, M.A., 
F.R.A.S., F.R.G.S. Council, Edward Douglas Archibald, M.A.; Arthur 
Brewin, F.R.A.S.; Henry Storks Eaton, M.A.; Rogers Field, B.A., 
M.Inst.C.E.; Frederic Gaster ; Baldwin Latham, M.Inst.C.E., F.G.S.; 
Robert John Lecky, F.R.A.S.; Edward Mawley ; Hon. Francis Albert 
Rollo Russell, M.A.; Richard Strachan ; George Mathews Whipple, 
B.Sc., F.R.A.S.; Charles Theodore Williams, M.A., M.D., F.R.C.P. 
MR. HEWITT'S NURSERY, SOLIHULL. 
The railway traveller between Leamington and Birmingham 
on the Great Western line passes through some of the most inter¬ 
esting of the North Warwickshire scenery, and when he reaches 
Solihull station, seven miles from Birmingham, he can walk from 
the platform into “ the prettiest little nursery in the provinces,” 
as Mr. Hewitt’s “ horticultural snuggery ” is described by one of 
the largest home-county nurserymen. It is a pretty nursery. It 
isn’t large, when large is the epithet you would apply to the well- 
known establishments of the Pauls, Richard Smith & Co., Cran- 
stons, &c., but it is good in every way. The genial and popular 
proprietor will have everything done well; he is too fond of his 
craft to allow trouble or expense to stand in the way of doing his 
best for his favourite plants and flowers. 
On my last visit Mr. Hewitt kindly went round the nursery 
with me, and took me through his nineteen houses. The most 
showy of these was a new one 50 feet by 12 feet full of Zonal 
Pelargoniums. How bright it looked that dismal December after¬ 
noon ! Why are not these Pelargoniums grown more largely by 
amateurs ? The Camellia house next forced my attention, and I 
was fairly surprised to find such grand specimen plants, such 
perfectly clean bright foliage (and yet I have seen Mr. William 
Paul’s Camellias at Waltham Cross !) Before the 12th of Decem¬ 
ber upwards of three thousand blooms had been cut in this house. 
I saw large specimens of the well-known Donckelaari, Lady 
Hume’s Blush, Fimbriata, and the Old White, one tree of this last 
variety having supplied Mr. Hewitt with upwards of one thousand 
blooms last season. In one of the three propagating houses Lilies 
of the Valley were being forced in succession, there being a very 
great demand for them both as cut flowers and in pots. Another 
large house is devoted to Primulas, and if you wish to see this 
flower in its perfection you must go into the neighbourhood of 
