THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN'S COMPANION.— August 5,1856. 635 
The gentlemen who constitute the Council have gratui¬ 
tously undertaken the task of re organising a most useful 
institution surrounded by difficulties arising from early errors, 
for which no oue now alive is responsible. They have no 
purpose whatever to servo beyond promoting what is by all 
admitted to be of great social importance—the advancement 
of the art and science of Gardening, out of which Agriculture 
itself has sprung. And they throw themselves upon the 
public for the means required to effect their object. 
They have set on foot a voluntary subscription, which has 
been most liberally met by many of the Fellows, and even 
by gentlemen who are not Fellows of the Society; they have 
determined upon selling the lease of the House in Eegent 
Street, and certain other corporate property which can be 
parted with without material inconvenience ; and they are 
reducing the expenditure of the Corporation to the lowest 
possible point consistent with maintaining its efficiency. By 
such means they hope to extinguish the debt, or to bring it 
within such uarrow limits that it will no longer be an im¬ 
pediment to freedom of action. 
In carrying on the Society the Council propose to main¬ 
tain the Garden, to put the introduction of Exotic Plants 
and Seeds upon a new and more convenient base, to hold 
the usual Monthly Meetings and Exhibitions in London, to 
renew experiments on the cultivation and quality of fruits 
and esculents, and if found advisable, even to revive here¬ 
after, upon another plan, the Exhibitions in the Garden 
itself. 
But to effect these objects the public must give its hearty 
support, by joining not only in the voluntary subscription 
which has been opened, but in strengthening the Society by 
an abundant introduction of new Fellows. For this purpose 
the Council offer all the facilities in their power. It has 
long been the opinion of some of them that an Annual 
Subscription of L‘4 4s. is too high in cases where members 
do not desire to avail themselves of the distribution of 
plants from the Garden; and that the sum paid before the 
year 1818, namely, £2 2s. a year, was more commensurate 
with the advantages to be derived from joining the Society. 
It is now determined that all members joining the Society 
from and after the present date shall have the option of 
paying A4 4s. a year, receiving their share of the plants 
and seeds distributed from the Garden, and holding a 
Transferable Ivory Ticket; or of paying £2 2s. a year, 
receiving such seeds or cuttings as it may be found possible 
to procure in sufficient abundance for distribution in the 
London Office, and not holding the Ivory Ticket. Of seeds 
and cuttings, a proper provision will be made by opening 
communications with our Colonial and other public Garden 
Establishments. 
In no case in future will an-Admissibn Fee be required, 
but all new subscriptions will be payable in advance, instead 
of retrospectively as hitherto. 
Under these arrangements the privileges of the Fellow-s 
will consisl 
1. In a participation in the distribution of plants and 
seeds, and holding a Transferable Ivory Ticket, which shall 
give the bearer all the personal privileges of the Fellow 
except attendance at Special General Meetings of the 
Society, according to their rate of subscription. 
2. In free personal admission with friends (the number 
to be fixed hereafter) to the House of the Society, the 
Library, the Garden, and all public meetings. 
3. In issuing orders for the free admission of a limited 
number of their friends to the Garden and all public 
meetings. (The limit to be in future assigned to this pri¬ 
vilege is under consideration.) 
4. In purchasing at a lower rate than the public a limited 
number of tickets, whenever tickets of admission to special 
exhibitions in London or elsewhere shall be provided for 
sale. 
Such advantages the Council believe to be an amply suf¬ 
ficient return for the annual subscriptions as now settled ; 
and they present them to the public with an earnest hope 
that they will be so regarded by all sincere friends of 
Horticulture. 
Should the present plan be supported strenuously, the 
future career of the Society may be productive of greater 
public advantages than ever, and the progress of the art of 
Gardening be still felt in every village in the kingdom. If, 
however, there should not be zeal enough among the lovers 
of Horticulture, the Council will be unable to render the 
Society further assistance, the Garden must be relinquished, 
and the career of this great national association be inevitably 
brought to a speedy close. They therefore appeal not only 
to the Fellows of the Society, but to the great public itself, 
for support iu this their endeavour to uphold one of those 
most useful institutions by which this country has for half 
a century been honourably distinguished beyond all others. 
By order of the Council, 
J. Fokbes Eoyle, M.D., Secretary. 
21, Regent Street, July 12th, 1856. 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
Orchids (S. J.). —There is no doubt the sprig of Oncidium is from 
a plant of the true Oncidium Wentworthianum; the dark shade on the 
pseudo-bulb is a certain specific character. The Epidendrum is an 
i undescribed, small species, of which there are plenty imported from 
South America, and are so comparatively worthless that botanists con¬ 
sider them as weeds, not worthy of a description or culture. We still 
think the bloom you sent last year is Oncidium pubes, but shall be glad 
[ to have another specimen when it blooms again. Do not think it a 
trouble to us; we are always glad to answer all queries sent to us. 
, The specimens came in excellent preservation ; the packing their ends 
in damp moss in a tin-box is the very best mode of sending flowers to 
a distance. 
Exhibiting Fruit-trees in Pots (Kilkenny). —We consider your 
note quite uncalled-for. Mr. Ferguson is in favour of this mode of 
exhibiting ; he only condemns those who do not cultivate in this manner 
superiorly. 
Forming a Grrenuouse (A One-year Subscriber ).—Your glazed 
summer-house will do. Buy our Manual “ Greenhouses for the Many.” 
Bees without Queens (A Kilkenny Subscriber). —When your bees 
attempted twice to swarm there could be no queens with them, otherwise 
they would not have returned to the hive. Most probably, from some cause 
or other, the old queen was not able to leave the hive with the bees ; in 
that case she would destroy the youug queens as soon as they were bred, 
even the larva in their cells. The same often happens when bad weather 
prevents the old queen from leaving the hive with the first swarm ; after 
which there can be no second one. Heat and the crowded slate of your 
hive caused the bees to lie outside, as also their instinct to cluster, in 
order to secrete wax, as if they had swarmed. But the cluster being, of 
course, queenless, your friend’s attempt to get the bees to settle in 
another hive like a swarm could be of no avail, unless he had put a queen 
to them, or fixed in the hive a piece of brood comb containing the larvce 
of working bees, removed the hive to a little distance, and confined the | 
bees about a day, in order that they might forget their old home. We 
should observe, that bees have the power of rearing a queen from the 
larva of a working bee; but such plans are hardly practical. You did 
not give your l}ees enough room, for the hive must contain extra bees, 
equal in numbers to two or three swarms.—J. W. 
Lastr-ea cristata. — W. B. says—“ In giving the history of one 
of our native Ferns, L. cristata, you mention Fritton Water (its neigh¬ 
bourhood) as being one of its habitats, and which I understood you to 
say was in Norfolk ; but Fritton is really in Suffolk—a great portion of it 
belongs to this estate (Summerleyton Hall). In its neighbourhood I 
have stood a few winters’storms, superintending trenching and planting; 
you may, therefore, judge I know a little about it. I believe, however, 
you are right in saying it has been found there, for I know a person who 
has found it; but I have never met with it myself.” 
Ink for Zinc Labels (B. T.).— No. 28 / can be had for threepence 
| of any bookseller. 
Names of Plants (VK.).— Galium verum, or Yellow Bed Straw. 
' (T. B. S.).— Asplenium rutu-mururiu, or Wall Rue. 
IT 
POULTRY SHOWS. 
I Bridlington. August 2 /th. Sec. Mr. T. Cape, Bridlington. 
! Essex. At Colchester, 8 th, 9 th, and 10 th of January, 1857. Secs. 
G. E. Attwood, and W. A. Warwick. 
Gloucestershire. Nov. 26th and 2/tli. Sec., E. Trinder, Esq., 
Cirencester. Entries close Nov. 1 st. 
Leominster. Thursday, October 16. 
Manchester and Liverpool Agricultural Society. At Wigan, 
Thursday, August 7th. Secs, for poultry, J. H. Peck, and J. S. 
Marshall, Esqrs. Eutries close July 24th. 
Nottinghamshire. At Southwell, December 17 th and 18th, 1856. 
Sec., Richard Hawksley, jun. Entries close November 19 th. 
1 Nottingham Central Poultry Association. January 14th 
and 15th, 1857. Sec., John Spencer, Nottingham. 
Yorkshire Agricultural Society. At Rotherham, Wednesday 
and Thursday, August 6 th and "th. Sec., J. Hannam, Esq., Kirk 
Deighton, Wetherby. 
N.B .—Secretaries unit oblige us by sending early copies of their lists. 
ARE THE DECISIONS OF OUR POULTRY 
JUDGES TO BE FINAL? 
Each succeeding year, each succeeding month, ay ! every 
Poultry Exhibition that is held, fully proves how vastly 
increased a difficulty committees now find it to secure the 
