PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
XVII 
be planted by nurserymen and florists of eminence, desirous of exhibiting the 
plants specially cultivated by them. The magnificent rhododendron exhibitions 
of Messrs. Watererand Godfrey, in the Great Tent, and the brilliant display of 
tulips by Messrs. Henderson, last year, have fidly justified the anticipations 
formed of the interest which would be thus given to the gardens ; and to this 
interest the exhibition of spring flowers by Mr. William Paul—the com¬ 
mencement, probably, of a series of similar exhibitions—formed no unimportant 
addition. That the nurserymen making these exhibitions desire to repeat and 
improve them, the Council consider to be the best criterion by which to judge 
of their appreciation by the Fellows. 
9. The fruit and floral committees hay? never been more constant in their 
work than in the past year. The average attendance of the members has been 
9 and 15, and the number of meetings 19 and 21 respectively; and the subjects 
brought before them for adjudication have been of unusual interest and 
importance. The committees have also carried out at Chiswick some useful 
trials on bedding and other plants, and a valuable series of experiments on 
peas. Reports on these subjects will be found in the last number of the Pro¬ 
ceedings for the year 1865. 
10. The fruit and floral meetings for the Fellows, which have followed the 
committee meetings, have created a very general interest amongst those specially 
devoted to horticulture. They are a revival of the old Regent Street meetings, 
with which, in the beauty of the objects exhibited at least, and in the actual 
numbers of visitors present, they do not compare unworthily; but, considering 
the excellence and rarity of the objects exhibited, they have not created that 
interest among the Fellows generally which might have been expected. The 
average attendance at these meetings in the month of May was 560, and of this 
number a portion only entered the Exhibition-room. There is evidence, how¬ 
ever, tending to show that the small attendance on these occasions has been due 
rather to ignorance as to the nature of these meetings than to indifference to 
the pleasure which such exhibitions are capable of affording. The steps to 
be taken to render the Tuesday meetings better known to the Fellows will be 
hereafter mentioned. 
11. The very large attendances at the Saturday shows and promenades, as 
compared with the attendances at promenades in former years, give evidence, 
indeed, that the exhibition of flowers adds greatly to the attraction of such 
assemblies for the whole bodv of the Fellows. In the month of Mav in 1864 
I V 
the average attendance of visitors on a promenade day was under 400. In 1865, 
the addition of a small flower show' to the promenade raised the average 
attendance at the same period of the year to upwards of 2,000, of whom 
three-fourths were Fellows and their friends. 
12. The produce of Chiswick has not yielded so good a return as was 
expected. This was due to two causes: the strawberry crop entirely failed; 
and, although the wall-fruit was good and plentiful, the general abundance 
of fruit during the past season greatly reduced the prices obtained. The 
Fellows have, as usual, been the chief purchasers of the more expensive fruits, 
and the Saturday shows have been instrumental in enabling Fellows to 
purchase fruits also which would otherwise have been sent to market. Further 
arrangements are being made for the coming season, by which Fellows, to 
whom it is inconvenient to go to Chiswick, will be enabled to partake more 
freely of the privilege of purchasing the fruit and flowers grown there. 
13. The number of visits made to the Chiswick Gardens by Fellows 
during the past year w r as 1,003, and 3,672 persons w-ere admitted by Fellows’ 
orders. Different members of the Society have received 1.530 packets of 
cuttings, principally of fruit-trees; and the number of plants, many of them 
of considerable value, distributed by ballot has been 6,265; packets of flower 
and vegetable seeds to the number of 376,884 have also been distributed 
among the Fellows. 
14. The Fellows will have remarked with pleasure that progress is being 
made towards the completion of the structures of the garden at South Ken¬ 
sington. A considerable portion of the spandrils of the arches of the Upper 
Arcades has been filled with terra-cotta bas-reliefs, and a contract has been 
accepted for the completion, before the out-door season commences, of the 
