June 6, 1859. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
451 
O NE of tlie most interesting episodes in connection with the 
Royal Horticultural Society’s Show last week was the presen¬ 
tation of a Yeitch Memorial medal to Mr. A. E. Barron in 
recognition of his long and valuable services in the cause of 
horticulture. Ordinarily these medals are of bronze and are 
accompanied with the sum of £5 ; but on this occasion a special 
silver medal was struck, the value of the grant being included in it, 
the result being a very handsome production. Never was a Yeitch 
Memorial medal more fittingly bestowed, and the few persons who 
happened to attend its presentation expressed their approval of the 
action of die Memorial Trustees in the decision arrived at to make 
a second departure in recognising “ services in horticulture ” other¬ 
wise than as exemplified in the winning of prizes at shows. 
The interesting ceremony of the presentation of the medal 
came as a surprise, and however gratifying it might be to the 
persons immediately interested, and the few who happened to be in 
the Orchid tent at the time, there was no mistaking the disappoint¬ 
ment of others who were in different parts of the Exhibition, and 
who would gladly have shown their appreciation of the proceedings, 
and joined in congratulating the recipient of this well-merited 
tribute, so gracefully conveyed by the President. There was 
presumaoly some good reason for the secrecy, which was so well 
maintained that even the majority of the representatives of the 
press, and also, we believe, some of the Trustees of the Memorial 
fund, were in ignorance of what was going on, otherwise a far 
larger number of visitors would have attended on the interesting 
occasion. 
In handing the medal to Mr. Barron Sir Trevor Lawrence 
expressed the pleasure he had as President of the Society in 
doing so, and observed that the award was a departure from the 
usual custom, and he thought a proper one. The fund was 
established in commemoration of a great horticulturist, the late 
Mr. James Yeitch, and the medals had hitherto been granted for 
public exhibits. It was now determined to bestow the honour for 
long and successful work in the promotion of horticulture on a 
wider basis. Mr. Barron had been in the service of the Royal 
Horticultural Society for thirty years, the greater part of the time 
as superintendent of the gardens and exhibitions. His success in 
the discharge of his duties as a cultivator and organiser merited 
recognition, as did his contributions to the literature of horticulture, 
as displayed in his excellent work on the Yine, and in the com¬ 
pilation and editing of the reports of the Apple and Pear Conferences, 
which were standard works on the subjects. For those services, 
which had been of public benefit, the medal was bestowed. The 
above represents the substance of the President’s remarks, and we 
may add the medal was handed to the recipient amidst as much 
applause as could be raised by the small assemblage who had the 
pleasure of listening to the brief but excellent address. Mr. Barron, 
in accepting the medal, observed the surprise was too great for him 
to express his obligations to the Trustees and President as he could 
wish for tne honour conferred, but he thanked them, if briefly, very 
sincerely, and the proceedings terminated. 
It is with more than ordinary pleasure that we refer to the 
presentation in question, not only because Mr. Barron is in every 
respect most worthy of the honour which has been conferred upon 
him, but because a precedent has been established of an important 
No. 167.—Vol. XVIII., Third Series. 
character, and under which meritorious work, outside *tho show 
tent, in the promotion of horticulture, can be recognised as occasion 
arises in a similar manner. 5Ve have long been convinced, and 
repeatedly said both in these columns and elsewhere, that there 
are persons who by their work in the garden and the press have 
done infinitely more for the advancement of horticulture than is 
accomplished by the exhibitor of half a dozen plants or a stand of 
cut flowers, yet to such exhibits, not always of the highest character, 
the Yeitch Memorial medals have been over and over again applied. 
It is not for a moment suggested that they should be withheld 
from products of commanding excellence staged at exhibitions, for 
many such afford evidence of great cultural skill on the part of 
the exhibitors : but we entirely dissent from the principle which 
had practically become established, that these medals should be 
monopolised by “ showmen.” If we have not been misinformed 
some of these medals have been awarded to plants that were 
not raised, nor long grown, by the exhibitors, but were bought 
for the purpose of winning them, and they have been adjudged for 
products of the most ordinary character in classes where there has 
been little or no competition. 
Medals of this nature should only be granted for exhibits when 
they are of undoubted excellence. The right principle of distribu¬ 
tion appears to be embodied in a paragraph in the schedule of the 
Royal Horticultural Society of the present year, in the following 
words :—“One prize to be awarded, at the discretion of the Council, 
to some person who has specially distinguished himself in horti¬ 
culture;” and two prizes “ to the most meritorious exhibits sent 
by amateurs to the Temple Show.” Under some such conditions 
men who have proved their ability by years of study and labour, 
but who may neither have the inclination nor the opportunity for 
showing cultivated produce, have a chance, to which numbers of 
them are fairly entitled, to share in the honours of horticulture, 
which it has been the custom, with one or two exceptions, to reserve 
for men who stage something, whether it is their own or not. Then 
as regards the classes to which the medals are allocated, it may 
happen, as it has happened, that through lack of competition they 
may be granted for produce of which the highest compliment that 
could be paid to it is that it bore the unmistakeable stamp of 
mediocrity. It is fully admitted that many winners of the “ Yeitch 
Memorials ” have won them splendidly, but there have been 
several exceptions, and the fact remains that some of the best 
gardeners and skilled and earnest amateurs who have done infinitely 
more to improve the produce of the garden and develop high 
culture generally, or in some particular branch, have not been 
regarded as eligible for receiving such a mark of official approba¬ 
tion as is registered in the conveyance of medals of this nature. 
In respect to the possibility of the medals as they are offered in. 
certain classes in the schedules of exhibitions falling to articles not 
of high excellence, the condition above quoted affords very largely, 
if not absolutely, security against such occurrence. The medals 
are not attached to any particular class, but are held in reserve by 
the authorities to be granted to the “ most meritorious exhibits.” 
That is as it should be. They should be granted for high merit, 
and that alone, of whatever may be exhibited, or for “services in 
horticulture ” by persons who do not stage produce at shows. 
There can be no question that the three medals at the Temple 
were appropriately applied—one to Mr. Barron for distinguished 
services, the others to Baron Schroder and Sir Trevor Lawrence 
for magnificent collections of Orchids. Such exhibits are eminently 
worthy of high honour, and if the same discrimination is exercised 
in awarding these medals as was displayed on the occasion referred 
to they will rise in public estimation. That is what we desire. 
The name which they commemorate should only be associated 
with the best products and most worthy exponents of horticulture. 
There are numbers of men who have done much in increasing the 
interest in gardening, and contributing to the store of knowledge 
that is requisite for successful practice, who are fairly entitled to 
No. 2123.—Vol. LXXX., Old Series 
