THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION.— May 13. I860. 315 ’ 
pots, to keep the soil open. Propagated aud raised as 
Kenncdya. When the flowering is over, remove all trace 
of the old flowers, but the pruning must be done more 
moderately than for the allied groups. It. Fistr. 
WALTONIAN CASE. 
My anticipations about the success of this simple 
method of striking cuttings on a small scale are more 
j than verilied already. From the middle of last February 
; —the only time left to Mr. West for testing the practi- 
! cability of the contrivance—he has been unremitting in 
; his experiments with cuttings, plants, and seeds, in his 
1 own shop, and under his own eye; namely, a lock and 
■ key. He has simplified the contrivance considerably, 
I and lessened the expense of working it with oil or gas 
J in the same proportion. His own lamp will burn twelve 
hours without trimming, and heats the Case just as easily 
| as the gas ; but still, a jet of gas is more handy, and less 
trouble. 1 am now sorry that I was not more resolute 
than to yield to the clamour of certain Juhjcts who teased 
us about drawings of the Case before we had a chance 
of proving it effectually; and 1 have a small list by me 
1 of such as break our law of correspondence, which, if it 
should swell to a respectable size for a weekly article, 1 
shall send it into the world in the shape of a report on 
the “ rise and progress of the Waltonian Case.” 
We have discovered another very important use of the 
Waltonian system, which is this : it may be successfully 
applied as bottom aud top-heat to a Wardian Case full of 
orchids, or of any other section of plants—Ferns, Alpines, 
and all; a portable hothouse system, in fact, which will 
do for the top and bottom-heat equally well at the same 
time. The whole family of Anceetochilids and Pliysu- 
rads may be grown in a drawing-room by this means, in 
a close Wardian Case of the highest finish, just as well, 
i and as easily as in an orchid-house. By the vapour 
tube you may admit as much moisture as the air will 
hold ; or by corking it, the heated air inside might be 
rendered sufficiently dry for a Melooactus or a Mammil- 
laria. You may fix on the proper degree of heat which 
will best suit your Wardian Case from 40'-’ to (55° or 70°, 
or more, and with a common lamp, quite out of sight, 
the required degree is kept up nobody knows how. All 
you have to do is to send the exact inside measure of 
your Wardian case to Mr. West, Surbiton, and ho will 
pack the apparatus, and send it where you direct, with 
full printed directions by which little Dick could set it 
going, and keep it on the move as long as you please 
If you have a friend in London, or who is going to 
London this season, just tell him to call on Mr. Kernan, 
of Covent Garden, and see the Waltonian Case in full 
operation, and he may possibly learn more about it from 
Mr. Kernan than I can tell you from here. I should 
not wonder to see one of them at work in the Crystal 
Palace, sooner or later. At all events, if I wished to 
push the Wardian drawing-room Case into the world, I 
would place one or two of them in the Crystal Palace, to 
be heated to the right pitch by the Waltonian system of 
bottom and top heat. As it is more than likely that the 
Wardian Case may now come into universal use in large 
towns, I must warn my readers, most specially, that Mr. 
Ward’s theory of growing plauts is founded on miscon¬ 
ception from beginning to end, and that if you desire to 
excel in the parlour cultivation of exotic plauts, you 
must repudiate the idea of keeping them from the air 
for any length of time; but with the Waltonian Case for 
propagation, you cannot have the cuttings too close, but 
if you raise seedlings in it they must have fresh air as 
soon as they are up. D. Beaton. 
HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 
RETORT FROM THE COUNCIT. TO THE ANNIVERSARY MEETING, 
MAY 1, 1850. 
In the Report made last May, the attention of the Society 
was drawn to the serious decrease which had taken place in 
the income of the Society, the effect of which was to aug¬ 
ment the debt of the Corporation to the extent of £1,250. 
J Nevertheless, relying upon the large apparent value of the 
property of the Society, and unwilling to believe that the 
' Garden Exhibitions, which for the four previous years had 
produced an average revenue of more than £2,000, had lost 
their attractions, the Council felt it incumbent upon them to 
repeat the experiment of holding those meetings, and also to J 
give greater interest to those in Regent Street. In this j 
1 manner they hoped not only to recruit the finances of the j 
Corporation, but to strengthen it by the accession of new ! 
Fellows. The result, as is now known, did not fulfil these 
expectations. The Exhibitions, although admirable horti¬ 
cultural displays, instead of yielding a profit of £2,000, pro¬ 
duced a loss of £270 IDs. fid., only 8,315 tickets having been 
i sold; and at the close of July the Accountant reported that 
j a serious addition to the debt, of the Corporation had again 
become inevitable. 
About the same time the Society had to lament the loss of 
their Treasurer, Dr. Andrew Jackson, who died on the 28th 
of July. 
The earliest possible day, consistent with the By-Laws, was j 
immediately selected for the nomination of Dr. Jackson’s j 
successor, and on the 14th of August the present Treasurer, j 
Mr. Wilson Saunders, was elected in his room. 
Three days afterwards, August 17 th, the Council having 
again assembled for the purpose of considering what course 
should be taken under the circumstances, directed the ex- j 
pense of the Garden to he immediately reduced to the lowest I 
possible point consistent with preserving the property there i 
from material deterioration, and nominated a Committee of 
seven Fellows, with power to add to their number, for the 
purpose of advising the Council in the then position of its 
affairs. It was, however, found impossible to bring together 
the members of this Committee during the autumn. So late 
as the 0th of October, only four members of the Committee 
could meet., and they expressed an unanimous opinion that 
j the Garden must he relinquished, and the property in it re¬ 
alised. Other individual hut not collective views were also 
communicated to the Council. These having been all taken 
into consideration by the Council on the 23rd of October, a ! 
j circular letter of the same date was ordered to he immedi- j 
diately transmitted to every Fellow, stating the Council had , 
arrived at the conclusion that the Garden Exhibitions will [ 
not be profitable in future. They said, “ The distance of the j 
situation from the Metropolis deters visitors from repairing ! 
to Chiswick as formerly', when no similar meetings were held j 
in places of more ready access. Nor can it he doubted, that j 
the proximity of the great Government Garden at Kew, ac- | 
cessible as it is by railway and water, and with whose attrac- ■ 
| tions it is hopeless to contend, annually renders the Society’s 
! Garden of greatly diminished interest. Under these circum¬ 
stances, the Couucil have no alternative but to reduce the 
latter establishment within very narrow limits, if not to re- 
j liuquish it altogether; and, at the same time, to realise some, ! 
at least, of the valuable property accumulated there towards 
liquidating the debts of the Corporation. 
“ The history of the Society clearly shows that it was in its 
most flourishing state in the year 1821, at which time its i 
operations were confined to the encouragement of Horticul- j 
ture by rewards, and the publication of its Transactions, to ! 
Exhibitions in London, to the distribution of seeds, Ac., oh- j 
tained from its correspondents, and to the maintenance of a 
small and unexpensive Garden. The subsequent enlarge¬ 
ment of the Society’s undertakings, successful as they have 
been for a time, have ultimately proved beyond its resources; 
hut the Council hope, and confidently expect, that hy revert¬ 
ing to the system of 1821 the Society may he restored to its 
former prosperity ; and hy restricting themselves to the en- | 
couragement of its original objects, its utility aud popularity 
I may he maintained undiminished.” 
At the same time the Council announced that they had 
j ordered an immediate sale of stove plants,—the continued 
, cultivation of which even through tbo ensuing winter would 
