FEBRUARY. 
37 
OUR MONTHLY CHRONICLE. 
Royal Horticultural Society. — From 
the January Number of the “Proceedings” 
it appears likely that considerable changes 
are to be effected in the Council at the annual 
general meeting, which is to be held on the 
14th of this month at 2 p.m. The three 
members recommended by the Council for 
removal are Sir Wentworth Dilke, Bart., Mr. 
J. Clutton, and Mr. J. Lee, in place of whom 
the following are proposed—viz., Sir Joseph 
Paxton, Sir Arthur Buller, late President of 
the Horticultural Society of Bengal, and Mr. 
B. T. Brandreth Gibbs, of Half Moon Street, 
Piccadilly, well known in connection with the 
Agricultural Society. There are, besides, two 
vacancies caused by the resignations of Sir 
Daniel Cooper, Bart., and Mr. S. H= Godson; 
and to fill these Mr. G. F. Wilson and Mr. 
A. Murray are recommended by the Council, 
the latter having resigned the Assistant Sec¬ 
retaryship, in which office he is to be replaced 
by the Hon. Edwin Portman. 
Great dissatisfaction has lately been felt by 
the members of the Fruit and Floral Com¬ 
mittees in consequence of an attempt on the 
part of the Council to induce them to alter 
their days of meeting from Tuesday to Friday, 
to suit the weekly Saturday Shows; but the 
day was so inconvenient to the members of 
the Committees that, if insisted on by the 
Council, there was every probability of the 
unanimous resignation of both Committees. 
The result of their representations has been 
that the Tuesday is to be retained as their 
day of meeting as heretofore. Judging from 
the Saturday Shows which have been held, 
these are not likely to be of much interest. 
Thus, at the first, Primulas were the flowers 
specially invited, and of Primulas there were 
only two exhibitors; and at the second Cycla¬ 
mens, and of Cyclamens a like number. 
Large Banyan Tree. —At a meeting of 
the Linnean Society an account by Dr. Shortt 
was read of an enormous Banyan tree exist¬ 
ing near the village of Pussumboor, Madras 
Presidency. It covers a space of 4800 square 
yards; its extreme height is 83^ feet, and 
it has about 2000 aerial roots, descending 
from a height of 60 feet. When viewed from 
a distance the tree resembles a well-wooded 
hill. 
Calcutta Botanic Garden. —The valuable 
collections of fruit trees and plants existing 
at these gardens, as well as the beauty of the 
gardens themselves, have been destroyed by 
the late terrible cyclone. It is stated that it 
will take years to repair the damage done. 
De Candolle’s Library and Herbarium 
at Geneva. —The library is very complete, 
containing almost every work really useful 
to the botanist, as well as several rare and 
expensive ones, such as Sibthorp’s “ Flora 
Grseca,” of which only forty copies were 
printed in the first instance, but a second 
edition was afterwards published at £60 each. 
“ I have often been asked,” said M. De Can¬ 
dolle, “how it was possible for me to re¬ 
member the mass of facts recorded in my 
‘ Botanical Geography.’ It is easy, but much 
arrangement is required, for my memory is 
very bad. Every work, as it arrives, is sifted 
—all that is new noted, and these notes thrown 
into a drawer. At the end of the year these 
notes are arranged, and pinned to pieces of 
paper. These are placed in covers, so that 
on opening that devoted to any particular 
subject, all the works touching upon it, and 
any scattered observations, are at once seen.” 
The herbarium fills five large rooms. It was 
commenced in 1794, with a collection of plants 
found near Geneva, and it rapidly increased. 
In 1799 it consisted of 3-500 specimens, and 
in 1802 the number was 16,600 ; in 1810 it 
had increased to 32,250, in 1818 to 47,200, 
and at the end of 1862 there were 245,674 
specimens, representing upwards of 100,000 
species. The herbarium is divided into two 
parts—the Prodromus herbarium, which con¬ 
sists of all the plants described in that great 
work; and the other division comprises all 
the plants which have been since added to 
the herbarium. This is under the care of Dr. 
Muller. The most important collections which 
it contains are those of Hooker and Thomson, 
from India; Preiss, Drummond, F. Muller, 
Cunningham, and others, from New Holland. 
Among the African collections are those of 
Commerson, Boyer (Madagascar), &c.; from 
South America those of Schomburgk, and 
many from North America. A cabinet con¬ 
tains fruits too large for the herbarium, speci¬ 
mens of woods, seeds, &c. An immense re¬ 
gister contains the names applied by botanists 
to different genera, and the years in which 
they were given, so that it is impossible to 
use the same name a second time, and the 
right of priority is preserved. — (Abridged 
from La Belgique Uorticole.') 
Brussels Horticultural Congress.— 
An account of that held last year has just 
been published, forming an octavo volume 
of-500 pages. It contains among other mat¬ 
ter, reports of the different sittings, the com¬ 
munications read, and the observations made 
by the principal horticultural Journals. 
OBITUARY. 
The late Mr. William Cole.- —We much 
regret to announce the death of Mr. W. Cole, 
of Fog Lane Nursery, Manchester, who has 
occupied a high position as a plant-grower 
during a period of twenty-three years. Those 
who had watched him for the last three or four 
years saw that hard work and mental anxieties 
