PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
CC1X 
valuable collection of figs has been properly accommodated, and almost 
the whole of the varieties are in full bearing. During the past season 
several new and excellent varieties have been discovered, and numerous 
synonymes have been detected. A report on the varieties which have fruited 
is in preparation. 
The collection of strawberries, to which reference was made in last year’s 
report, as having recently been acquired and planted, is now in a most satis¬ 
factory condition. Last summer the greater number of the varieties produced 
fruit; but as it is anticipated that from the vigorous condition of the plants, 
and the encouraging prospects for next summer, the whole will then be in 
bearing, it will be better to make a report on the whole after comparing them 
with each other and ascertaining their relative qualities and merits. 
12. During the past year the Board instituted a trial of all the varieties of 
grapes that are included under the group of Chasselas. These were grown in 
pots in a heated pit, but the experiment was not sufficiently successful to 
warrant a report being made on the various varieties forming the collection. It 
is, however, intended to repeat the experiment next summer. 
13. A trial of all the varieties of garden peas was highly successful, and 
tended to the acquisition of much valuable information relating to the different 
varieties, and especially to those of recent introduction. The same success 
attended the trials of tomatoes and lettuce. On all of these subjects, complete 
reports have been prepared. 
14. Another of the most important functions of the Chiswick Garden has 
been liberally worked in the distribution of grafts of fruit trees, of which no 
less than 1,500 parcels have been received by Fellows of the Society during the 
past season. 
15. The demolition of the old and diseased fruit trees which occupied 
some of the belts in the kitchen garden having been attended with beneficial 
results to the garden, the Board would suggest to the Council that the 
greater portion of the old orchard of unproductive standard trees should be 
trenched over; and the ground appropriated to the reception of the young 
trees raised from scions of those which had been destroyed, along w T ith 
others forming a numerous collection which have been obtained at various 
times from the pomologists of the continent of Europe and the United States 
of America. These old orchard trees, as they at present exist, are perfectly 
worthless, and occupy a large extent of ground, which is thereby rendered un¬ 
productive. If this were done, not only would there be room for the young 
plantation of pyramidal and bush fruit trees, but space available also for the 
production of vegetables and the more common fruits for which there is an 
increasing demand by the Fellows; w'hile there is less enquiry for grapes and 
the higher class of fruits. 
16. The peach wall, which at one time was the pride of the garden, has for 
some years been gradually losing its interest; the trees, many of which are 
coeval with the wall itself, having fallen into the decrepitude of age, and 
occupy space which might be more serviceably employed. The Board would 
suggest that these old trees be removed, and their places filled with young 
trees of choice varieties, which will serve not only as a source of income by 
the sale of the fruit, but as examples of the different methods of training and 
the most approved modes of pruning wall-fruit trees. As the trees at present 
exist, they afford no instruction in this latter respect, and it is most important 
in an establishment like the garden of the Society, in which experimental and 
educational purposes form so important a feature, that the training and pruning 
of fruit trees should be on the most approved and modern principles. 
Extkact from the Beport of the Pomological Examiner. 
The examinations of gardeners as candidates for the Society’s certificates, 
which were commenced in 1866, have been continued during the past year with 
most satisfactory results. One of these took place at Midsummer last, when 
