COUNTRY GENTLEMAN'S COMPANION. 
27 
April 8. 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
D 
M 
t) 
w 
APRIL 8—14, ) 856. 
Weathek near London in 1855. 
llarometer. Thermo. Wind. >n 
Inches. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon 
R , & S ; 
Mot n’ 
Age. 
Cl0Ch 
bf. Sun. 
Day 1 f 
Year. 
* 
Tv 
Cholera agilis. 
30.050—29.999 
53—38 N.W. 01 
21 a 5 
43 a 6 
1 1 
49 
3 
1 
48 
99 
3 
W 
Catops sericeus. 
29-811 — 29.404 
68-39 W. j 01 
19 
44 
morn. 
4 
1 
31 
100 
0 
Tn 
Catops ehrysomeloides. 
29 301—29.253 
54—40 1 W. 1 01 
17 
4t) 
1 
4 
5 
1 
15 
101 
• 1 
F 
Catops nigricans. 
20.556—29.423 
87—42 W. 05 
14 
43 
2 
6 
6 
0 
59 
102 
i2 
3 
Ptomophagus villosus. 
29.572—29 512 
60-46 S.W. 01 
12 
49 
2 
50 
9 
0 
43 
103 
13 
Sun 
3 Sunday after Easter, 
•29.607-30.546 
57—39 S. 01 
10 
51 
3 
19 
s 
0 
27 
101 
M 
Ptomophagus fumatus. 
1 30.002—29.844 
62—40 1 W. — 
8 
53 
3 
42 
9 
0 
12 
105 
Meteorology of the Week. —At Chiswick, from observations during the last twenty-nine years, the average highest and lowest tem¬ 
peratures of these days are 55.8°, and 32.4°, respectively. The greatest heat, 73°, occurred on the 14th, in 1652 ; and the lowest cold, 22°, 
i on the 13th, in 1653. During the period 103 days were fine, and on 93 rain fell. 
With much that Mr. Beaton writes to day upon the 
TTorticultural Society we entirely agree, and with no 
passages move entirely than with those in which he 
says, “ The Society has fulfilled its mission—its days 
are numbered ; but let us die in peace with each other, 
and with all the world besides.” 
So say we—let the Society die; but let it spring up 
again, renovated and re-organized. Tt has fulfilled its 
mission—it has aided in improving and enriching every 
department of Gardening;—let it pursue its mission 
along other paths and under the guidance of other mis¬ 
sionaries. No one will venture to say that there i3 no 
more for it to do. The age for Horticultural Societies is 
not passed; and if we look to continental Societies, and 
see what they are doing; if we consider the experiments 
and researches which might he followed out in the 
j Chiswick Garden, and which might he published in a 
1 cheap form; and if we consider what places for refer¬ 
ence are its orchard and library, we shall appreciate 
what a vigorous Horticultural Society might achieve for 
i gardening. 
The Society wants new heads at its Council Board, 
and, perhaps, no more unfortunate expression ever came 
deliberately from the pen of the Managers of a ruined 
Society, than that from the present Council, in which 
' they state as their opinion “ that so large a portion as 
! one-third of practical horticulturists on the Council, would 
! be unpopular, if not disadvantageous." It is somewhat 
I difficult to write temperately upon this gratuitous insult to 
I the Gardeners of England ; an insult which would have 
1 been better unexpressed even if the Society was popular 
and flourishing under the management of the Council 
which uttered it. When we reflect that under that 
Council the Society has been brought to the brink of 
destruction; that from the want of practical managers 
no experiments worth recording have been conducted 
in the Garden; that money has been lavished upon the 
culture of Orchids and other plants cultivated only by a 
few; when Members are fast withdrawing from the 
i Society ; when it is suggested by that Council that the 
Garden shall he abandoned, and the Regent Street 
House retained, a step, if taken, that will, beyond all 
doubt, put an end to the Society—When these facts 
are before the Gardening community, then to tell that 
community, that to allow them to have even one-third of 
the management of a Gardening Society in their hands 
would he “unpopular" and “disadvantageous,” is about 
i the blindest dictate of presumption ever published. 
We now leave the Society. On the 1st of May will 
be decided whether its members are content to let the j 
present pilot still steer it to the fall over which it is , 
purposed it shall he precipitated. 
MEETING OF THE HORTICULTURAL 
SOCIETY.— March 31st. 
Thu business which was carved out for this meeting 
was to hear the Report of the Council on the suggestions 
made by the Committee of Investigation, to help the j 
Council to deal with those suggestions, and to elect 
three members on the Council in the room of three of 
the oldest of the Council, who took the precaution ol . 
deserting the Society on the plea of ill health. 
There was a good muster of Fellows; but it took all 1 
our available strength just two hours to do all that 
work; and what we did was only half done after all. 
We are now no more forward than we were the first day 
we met. Even the election of three new men on the 
Council was out of “ order," and is only a half measure, j 
if so much. By the rules of our Charter, all our elections 
must he by the ballot, and all our other movements go 
by the said rules. Our worthy Chairman, on this occa 
siou, Sir P. Egerton, Bart., had to apply some of the 1 
rules of the Charter vigorously to keep some of the 
speakers within the mark ; but, contrary to the rules of 
the said Charter, he allowed the meeting to believe that ; 
we elected three “ discreet” persons in the room of three 
more discreet ones, who “ made off” in good time. But 
this election is null and void in law, nevertheless; and 
the work will have to be done over again, unless we 
overrule the Charter, by which all our elections are ex¬ 
pressly required to be by ballot; and “unless it shall 
appear upon such ballot that two-thirds of the bellows 
present at such meeting shall have voted for the same,” j 
the election shall be of none effect; but we, in the hurry 
of the moment, wore content with a good majority— 33 
against 19—and so fell short of the conditions imposed 
on us by our Charter. Therefore, as far as our election ' 
of three members on the Council is concerned, we might | 
just as well have met on the 1st of April as on the last 
of March. Yet, like the rest, we railed against the mis- 
ntanagers of the last war. 
The rule is, that the Council nominate or recommend 
three “ discreet” persons at. every anniversary to fill the j 
place of three who retire every year; and the Fellows 
present may object to one, or to the whole three, and vote 
for others instead, or they may vote for the nominees of 
the Council. On this occasion, the nomination of the 
Council was very “ discreet” indeed. Two out of the 
three were members of the late Committee,—the Rev. 
Mr. Harcourt and Mr. Veitch, jun.; and the third, Mr. 
Spencer, is one of our very best practical gardeners; 
and if three more equally qualified should be elected in 
the rotation at the next anniversary meeting, on the 
1st of May, full one-third of the Council, at. least, would 
No. CCCXCIH. Vol XYI. 
