July ja, 1887. ) 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
60 
purpose Of promoting horticulture there, and should be carried out 
accordingly. 
(A.) Meetings .—\n the old times the meetings of the Society, when 
plants were commented on and discussions took place before the Fellows 
generally, were of great interest, and might with benefit be revived, 
under precautions that they do pot become too formal. At present the 
■Scientific Committee within the Society, a [id the Horticultural Club 
-outside the Society, supply this want; but to heither of these are the 
Fellows as such admitted. The evening meetings, which the late Mr. 
Mangles and myself got up some years ago, were undoubtedly successful, 
though carried out on too ambitious a scale ; and I cannot but think 
that some such meetings, held either in the afternoon or evening, or 
sometimes in the afternoon and sometimes in the evening, would be 
■attractive to the Fellows, and most useful. 
But still more useful, than such meetings, which must be more or 
less formal, would be the informal meetings of horticulturists which 
wvould take place did the Society occupy adequate premises in a central 
position. The rooms of the Society ought to be the “ House of Call ” 
for all interested in horticulture, or to speak more plainly, the Society 
-ought to contain within itself a Horticultural Club. If the Bindley 
Library were properly housed, with suitable reading, writing, and 
conversation ro6ms, with the possibility of obtaining refreshments, and 
especially with the added attraction of the Small continuous show spoken 
of above, we should, I venture to think, secure a very large support 
from provincial horticulturists. 
C. Publications. —Although it is perfectly true that the garden¬ 
ing papers furnish orr their own account excellent reports of what is 
going on in the Society, and the necessity for an independent publica¬ 
tion by the Society is not so urgent as it was in the early daj r s of the 
Society, still there seems to me to be ample reasons why the Society 
should issue as a Journal an authoritative account of the work of the 
Society. Such a journal, issued to all the -Fellows, fortnightly or 
monthly, would not really clash with the gardening papers, and every 
Fellow would then be able to learn what the Society was doing. 
There seems to be also a distinct want of some channel for"the publi¬ 
cation of horticultural communications which are too long for the 
-gardening papers ; for such papers as these and for such matters as the 
frost report, the old Transactions might be revived as a second means of 
publication, keeping the journal for the more simple record of the busi¬ 
ness of the Society. 
D. Investigations. —In the old time the Society sent out explorers 
to investigate the flora of distant countries, to the great profit of science 
and of horticulture, and to the great profit of the Society. Perhaps it 
is vain to hope that anything of the kind can ever be done again ; but 
at all events the Society might and outot to institute or support horti¬ 
cultural investigations at home, at Chiswick, or elsewhere, in a more 
systematic-manner and with a greater scope than at present, valuable as 
is the work of the kind still carried on at Chiswick. 
E. Education. —In the bye-laws of the Society, as they at 
present stand,_ are regulations for a Committee of Education ; and 
indeed in old times the furtherance of horticultural education was laid 
down as one of the important duties of the Society. There is at the 
present time every reason why the Society should at once seriously take 
-up this most important though most difficult task. 
Such it seems to me are in brief the chief functions. of the Society. 
To attqmpt.to carry them out is to a large extent to go back to the old 
■lines on which the Society was founded, and on which it was once so 
successful. 
jin.—T he organisation of the society. 
A. The Council.— There can be no doubt that the Council is net 
in touch, as it should be, with the horticulturists of the kingdom in 
spite of.its being a more active and industrious body ; it is indeed the 
most hard-workmg Council with which I am acquainted. But I do not 
share the views of,those who look for improvement in a more popular 
mode of election 1 imagine that everyone with experience in such 
matters will admit, that to leave the selection of new members of Council 
to the accidents of a general meeting of Fellows is the way least likelv 
to result in a good Council. The real fault is that the Council is too 
small a body and undertakes too much work ; it attempts to do everv 
thing itself, instead of relegating some of its duties to other bodies of 
I* ellows. . 
Aj 1 increase in the Council cannot be made without a change in the 
Charter, and I am myself inclined to believe that a new charter is 
almost essential to any real prosperity of the Society. If the Council 
-consisted of twenty-five members, that is of twenty.one members in 
■addition to the President, Treasurer, Hon. Secretary, and Char-man of 
General Committee (see below) of which twenty-one, one third fsevenl 
were ineligible for election each year, the Council would be a very 
•different body from what it is now, and would be much more trul'v 
representative of horticulturists even though the new members of 
Council were elected on the present system. 
But without having recourse to a new charter, with the number of 
Council remaining as at present, much might be done by the Council 
remitting some of its functions to other bodies of Fellows. This would 
necessitate a change in the organisation of— 
. Committees.— My experience of the British Association 
for the.Advancement of Science leads me to believe that much might 
be effected by the institution of a General Committee, who mitot 
■do much that is now done by the Council, a sort of “Lower House ’"in 
tact, to be organised somewhat as follows :— 
1. The nucleus of the General Committee to be nominated in the first 
instance by the Council. Subsequent elections to the Committee to be 
male,by the .Committee itself, the,Council, perhaps reserving the right 
of vet, but not more. 
2. Every candidate for election into Committee shall be a Fellow of 
the Society. We may, as heretofore, utilise the help of botanists an 
others who are not Fellows, and may give them' id return certain 
privileges, but riot that of belonging to the General- CommitteY, which 
as will be seen, will be in reality a governing body. 
3. The qualification for admission to the Committee shall be 
evidence not only of the desire, but also of the ability to promote horti¬ 
culture ; that is to say the candidate must be.a person of horticultural 
reputation, and likely to be a useful member of the Committee. 
4. Every candidate shall be duly proposed at one meeting of the 
Committee, with a written certificate stating his claims, and shall be 
voted for as some subsequent meeting. That is to say, the election shall 
be of a definite, formal character. 
5. Anyone elected a member of the General Committee shall 
remain on the Committee during his life, or as long as he pleases, 
subject to removal for special reasons, in a manner to be specially pro¬ 
vided. , , * 
fi. The number of the Committee shall not be limited. 
7. Such members of the Committee as may from time to time be 
elected to serve on the Council shall, while serving on Council, continue 
to exercise their functions as members of the Committee. 
8. The Committee so constituted shall, each year, form, out of their 
own' numbers— 
a. A Fruit Committee, 
b. A Floral Committee, < 
e. A “ Nomenclature ” or “ Name ” Committee, 
d. A Scientific Committee, ' 
e. A Chiswick Committee, 
/. A Publication Committee ; 
and any other Special Committee which they may see fit; provided 
always, t 
That a certain proportion of each Committee (one in ten 
for instance) be members of Council for the time 
being; and 
That the Council have the power of veto over any name 
selected as member of any Committee, but not of sub¬ 
stituting any other name, the General Committee in the 
case of such a veto proposing a new name until the 
Council and Committee are agreed. 
i>. The General Committee and the Special Committees -shall have 
executive powers, including that of spending such sums of money as 
have been granted by Council, annually or otherwise, but any expenditure 
beyond such grants must be previously sanctioned by Council, and in 
general, the conduct of the General and Special Committees shall be 
governed by regulations approved of by Council. 
10. The Chairman of the General Committee shall be re-eligible for 
election, and shall be a permanent member of Council. 
In other words the Council will retain its hold upon the finances, 
and upon the general policy and conduct of the Society, but many of 
the administrative details will devolve on the Committees. 
Many details of course require to be filled in, as to the meetings of 
the General Committee, the relations of tho Fruit and Floral Com¬ 
mittees to the Nomenclature Committee, instituted to insure correct 
nomenclature, the duties of the Chiswick Committee, and the like, but 
these may be left for the present. 
Thus a system of regulations would have to be drawn up for the 
conduct of the general and Special Committees, and had 1 better perhaps 
be incorporated in the bye-laws of the Society. 
At the beginning of the year the Committees would be appointed, 
and the Council would apportion grants of the funds of the Society .to 
the several Committees to enable them to carry on their annual work. 
The General Committee would probably meet, say, quarterly, and report 
quarterly to the Council, who would issue the reports to the Fellows. 
Within the lines of their regulations, and at an expenditure not 
exceeding the sum allotted to them, the Committees would have power 
to act independently of the Council, and there would be' no necessity 
for the Council to revise the acts of the Committees, such as the grant¬ 
ing of medals, Ac., but all action leading to extra expenditure-and all 
matters beyond the regulations would have to be referred to the 
Council. 
C. The Secretary. —Though I do not share the views of those 
who desire to have a paid Secretary to manage the Society, and so 
eventually to become the master of the Society, but think that the 
Fellowes ought to manage their affairs themselves, I have always been 
of opinion that a paid Secretary is necessary, that the secretarial labours 
ought to be so great as to require the whole time of some one man. If 
the foregoing plan were adopted, and the Society flourished, it might 
become a question whether we did not need two paid officers, one a 
horticultural or internal Secretary, ancl the other a business or external 
Secretary ; but this may be left for the present. 
IV. Subscriptions. —There is no doubt whatever in my own mind 
that we ought to have £1 Is. subscribers as well as £2 2s. and £4 4s. 
subscribers. I sec no difficulty in making most of the privileges (votes, 
admission, &c.) of the £2 2s. subscribers double, and those of the 
£i 4s. subscribers fourfold those of the £1 Is. subscribers. We might, 
with advantage, also revive the associates, that is to say, grant" to 
suitable persons the privilege of fellowship (except the right of voting) 
