XVI 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
of 1864 by 138/. 18s. 1 d. This comparatively greater augmentation in the 
amount' subscribed than in the number of Fellows is to be attributed to the 
important privileges which a subscriber of four guineas now enjoys from 
both his tickets being transferable. 
3. It is with great sorrow that the Council refer to the heavy losses by 
death which the Society has lately suffered. It has seldom, if ever, happened 
in the experience of the Society that three men of eminent horticultural 
attainments have passed away in one year; and whatever the extension of the 
love of gardening—however illustrious the men enrolled in the ranks of 
horticulture, the decease of three such men as Dr. Lindley, Sir William 
Hooker, and Sir Joseph Paxton will be regarded as a serious calamity. 
The Council propose to show how much the labours of these distinguished 
men were appreciated in this Society by endeavouring to obtain the co-opera¬ 
tion of Government, and bodies pursuing branches of science collateral with 
horticulture, in obtaining a life-sized group of them. They have also voted 
that a memorial be instituted, in the form of a medal, in honour of Dr.Lindley’s 
exertions in carrying out the objects of the Society, to be awarded only at 
the Fruit and Floral meetings which he so long and so ably supported. 
4. The balance of the receipts from the public throughout the year, and the 
expenditure for bands, and for prizes, &c., at exhibitions, is more favourable to 
the Society than in 1864 ; and the result of the year’s working tends to show 
that small and frequent exhibitions, as they are more conducive to horti¬ 
cultural progress, so also are they less likely to occasion pecuniary losses than 
the large exhibitions of past years. The Council continue, therefore, to be of 
opinion that the Society should hold one great general exhibition only in 
each year; and the best time for this exhibition they consider to be the end 
of May or the beginning of June. 
5. The income arising from letting portions of the arcades to exhibitors of 
horticultural implements and ornaments is fast increasing, and the amount 
shown under this head in the accompanying accounts will, it is expected, 
be nearly doubled in the next financial statement. The Council have received 
also many indications that the opportunity of comparing the manufactures 
of various firms, afforded by these exhibitions, is very generally appreciated 
by Fellows who have desired to make purchases for their gardens. This 
arrangement, therefore, works well both for the Society and for the exhibitors. 
The rentals from these lettings did not, it will be remembered, originally 
form part of the income of the Society, but were presented to it by H.M.’s 
Commissioners for 1851. The Commissioners have now also liberally given 
to the Society the payments by the contractor for the right of supplying 
refreshments in the gardens. 
6. A comparison of the expenditure of the Society for the years 1863, 
1864, and 1865, will show that a system of retrenchment in the working 
expenses has been steadily pursued; and although in future the scientific 
work of the Society will be carried on, as will hereafter be explained, on a 
scale necessitating an increased expenditure under this head, the Council hope 
that their arrangements will leave savings on other items which will more 
than counterbalance the outlay on this, the first and the special object of the 
Society. 
7. The number of entrance’s to the gardens at South Kensington have been— 
115,521 in 1863, 
185,092 in 1864, 
231,599 in 1865. 
Of these entrances during the latter halves of 1864 and 1865 (before July 
1864 the books were not so kept as to admit of comparison in this respect), 
60,705 and 83,530 respectively have been Fellows and their friends. The 
numbers are exclusive of the exceptional occasions of the uncovering of 
the Prince Consort’s memorial in 1864, and of the anniversaries of the 
Prince Consort’s birthday in the last two years. This increasing popularity 
of the gardens with the Fellows as well as with the public augurs well for 
the future of the Society. 
8. In their annual report in February 1864, the Council announced to the 
Fellows their desire to set apart portions of the garden at South Kensington to 
