758 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
July 30, 1887. 
which are abundantly produced about this time, have 
also the same general colour, which is only varied by 
the shining green of the upper side of the leaves and 
the white exserted tips of the bracts, subtending the 
florets themselves. A fine bush of it at Pendell Court, 
Bletchingley, is now in beautiful condition, although 
it withstood the severity of the recent winter without 
any protection. It, moreover, proves wonderfully 
hardy in all the more temperate and favoured parts of 
Britain, but in the midland and northern counties 
requires the protection of a greenhouse. 
-->=&«-- 
ROYAL HORTICULTURAL 
SOCIETY. 
Professor M. Foster, a member of the Council, has 
addressed the following letter to the president of the 
Eoyal Horticultural Society, Sir Trevor Lawrence, 
Bart., M. P., on the subject of the reorganisation of the 
society :— 
“Dear Sir Trevor,—The resolution adopted by the 
meeting of the Fellows on Tuesday last was, in reality, 
a decision not only as to the home, but also as to the 
policy of the society. By the resolution the Fellows 
indirectly expressed their intention that the society 
should devote itself to the advancement of horticulture, 
and should undertake nothing that was not distinctly 
calculated to advance horticulture. I may now, there¬ 
fore, venture to do, what previous to that decision 
would have been useless, 'to put down on paper some 
suggestions as to the organisation of the society best 
calculated to secure its object, the advance of horticul¬ 
ture. I will divide my remarks into heads. 
“ I. The Fellows on Members of the Society.— 
These naturally fall into two categories : (1) those who 
pursue horticulture as a profession— 1 the trade,’ as it is 
sometimes called, and gardeners receiving salaries ; and 
(2) those, like yourself and myself, who garden as an 
amusement and relaxation—the ‘ amateurs, ’ as we are 
called. Both these, as far as the society is concerned, 
have identical interests ; they will both be benefited by 
its prosperity, and by its being managed so as to 
advance horticulture. It seems to me useless and mis¬ 
chievous to raise the question which class is the most 
important to the society. I myself think the first body 
is the more important, but I refuse to raise the question. 
It is enough that they are both, though in different 
ways, essential to the society. It follows that they 
should both take part in the management of it. 
“In the few brief remarks which I made at the 
meeting, I insisted, following Mr. Shirley Hibberd, on 
the necessity that the society should be national, not 
local—not even metropolitan. It is necessary that the 
organisation should be such as to allow provincial 
members to have due influence. 
“II. The Functions of the Society. —These may 
be subdivided. 
"A. Judicial. —The forming and making known of 
authoritative judgments on the names proper to be 
applied to, and on the horticultural value of new plants 
(I throughout use the word 1 plant ’ as short for flowers, 
fruit, shrubs, &c.), and on the value of cultural speci¬ 
mens, of horticultural appliances, and the like. Much 
valuable work in this direction has been and is being 
done by our several committees ; but there is, I venture 
to think, still room for improvement, especially in two 
directions. In the first place the bestowal of medals is 
ridiculously superabundant; being showered down as 
they are, they have lost all distinctive value. In the 
second place some means are needed for the verification 
of names. No plant ought to receive the society’s medal, 
prize or certificate without the name under which the 
plant has been shown having been verified by competent 
authorities ; this will cause some additional trouble in 
the way of making arrangements that-the plant shall 
be submitted to competent authorities, but the award 
of the society ought to be of sufficient importance to 
justify the trouble being taken. In the case of a new 
plant exhibited for the first time, and receiving an 
award as a new plant, still more trouble ought to be 
taken. I do not myself see how such awards can be 
safely made without some careful system of reference. 
A plant submitted for a certificate of being a new plant 
ought to be referred to competent referees, who should 
send in a written report, and no certificate should be 
given except upon such a report. These reports, with 
descriptions of the plants, and, if possible, drawings, 
and dried or otherwise prepared specimens, if preserved 
by the society, would be of immense value. This, of 
course, means a more complete organisation of the 
committees than we have at present; but to this I will 
return. 
B. Expository or Propagandist. — (a.) Shows .—“It 
is unnecessary to urge that shows of the nature of our 
fortnightly ones must continue to be a prominent 
feature of the society. These are shows to show plants, 
to instruct the public as to what is being done in 
horticulture, not to furnish a gala entertainment. 
Hence, though arrangement of plants may be made at 
these shows to illustrate their aesthetic value, the great 
object must always be to call attention to individual 
plants. I share with many the view that, at all 
events, during certain parts of the year, it is desirable 
that there should be intermediate shows in the inter¬ 
vening weeks ; or, rather, I would go further, and say 
that when we possess adequate accommodation we 
might, I believe, without very much trouble, by proper 
arrangement, provide a continuous show, open always, 
so that any horticulturist visiting London would 
always find some objects of interest to see. Everyone 
must be aware how much we lose by plants not happening 
to be in bloom on the days of the fortnightly shows. 
It seems, moreover, not impossible to adopt a plan, by 
which notice should be given of the plants likely to be 
on view at such and such a time. From what I hear, 
I am also inclined to think that the day of the week 
and the time of day fixed for the fortnightly shows 
may fitly be reconsidered. In spite of the disaster at 
Liverpool, I am still of opinion that provincial shows 
and meetings ought to be held, if not annually, then 
every two, three or four years. This seems only just 
to the provinces, if the provincial horticulturists are to 
belong to the society. But it ought to be understood 
that such a provincial show or meeting is really a visit 
of the society to the town or city where the show is 
held, for the purpose of promoting horticulture there, 
and should be carried out accordingly. 
( b.) Meetings .—“In the old times the meetings of the 
society, when plants were commented on and dis¬ 
cussions took place 'before the Fellows generally, were 
of great interest, and might with benefit be revived, 
under precautions that they do not become too formal. 
At present the Scientific Committee within the society, 
and the Horticultural Club outside the society, supply 
this want, but to neither of these are the Fellows, as 
such, admitted. The evening meetings, which the late 
Mr. Mangles and myself got up some years ago, were 
undoubtedly successful, though carried out on too 
ambitious a scale ; and I cannot but think that some 
such meetings, held either in the afternoon and sometimes 
in the evening, would be attractive to the Fellows, and 
most useful. But still more useful than such meetings, 
which must be more or less formal, would be the 
informal meetings of horticulturalists which would 
take place did the society occupy adequate premises in 
a central position. The rooms of the society ought to 
be the “ house of call ” for all interested in horticul¬ 
ture, or to speak more plainly, the society ought 
to contain within itself a horticultural club. If the 
Lindley Library were properly housed, with suitable 
reading, writing and conversation rooms, with the 
possibility of obtaining refreshments, and especially 
with the added attraction of the small continuous show 
spoken of above, we should, I venture to think, secure 
a very large support from provincial horticulturalists. 
“ C. Publications .—Although it is perfectly true 
that the gardening papers furnish on their own account 
excellent reports of what is going on in the society, 
and the necessity for an independent publication by the 
society is not so urgent as it was in the early days of 
the society, still there seems to me to be ample reasons 
why the society should issue as a j ournal, an authoritative 
account of the work of the society. Such a journal, 
issued to all the Fellows, fortnightly or monthly, 
would not clash with the gardening papers, and every 
Fellow would then be able to learn what the society 
was doing. There seems to be also a distinct want 
of some channel for the publication of horticultural 
communications which are too long for the gardening 
papers ; for such papers as these, and for such matters 
as the Frost Bepoi-t, the old Transactions might be 
revived as a second means of publication, keeping the 
journal for the more simple record of the business of the 
society. 
“D. Investigations .—In the old time the society sent 
out explorers to investigate the flora of distant countries, 
to the great profit of science and of horticulture, and to 
the great credit of the society. Perhaps it is vain to 
hope that anything of the kind can ever be done again, 
but at all events the society might and ought to institute 
or support horticultural investigations at home, at 
Chiswick or elsewhere, in a more systematic manner, 
and with a greater scope than at present, valuable as is 
the work of the kind still carried on at Chiswick. 
“ E. Education. —In the bye-laws of the society, as 
they at present stand, are regulations for a Committee 
of Education ; and, indeed, in old times the furtherance 
of horticultural education was laid down as one of the 
important duties of the society. There is at the 
present time every reason why the society should at 
once seriously take up this important though most 
difficult task. Such it seems to me are in brief the 
chief functions of the society. To attempt to carry 
them out is to a large extent to go back to the old lines 
on which the society was founded, and on which it was 
once so successful. 
“III. The Organisation of the Society. A. 
The Council. —There can be no doubt that the Council 
is not in touch, as it should be, with the horticulturists 
of the kingdom, in spite of its being a most active and 
industrious body ; it is, indeed, the most hard-working 
Council with which I am acquainted. But I do not share 
the views of those who look for improvement in a more 
popular mode of election ; I imagine that everyone with 
experience in such matters will admit that to leave the 
selection of new members of the Council to the accidents 
of a general meeting of Fellows is the way least likely 
to result in a good Council. The real fault is that the 
Council is too small a body, and undertakes too much 
work ; it attempts to do everything itself, instead of 
relegating some of its duties to other bodies of Fellows. 
An increase in the Council cannot be made without a 
change in the charter, and I am myself inclined to 
believe that a new charter is almost essential to any real 
prosperity of the society. If the Council consisted of 
twenty-five members, that is, of twenty-one members in 
addition to the president, treasurer, bon. secretary, and 
chairman of General Committee (see below), of which 
twenty-one, one-third (seven) were ineligible for election 
each year, the Council would be a very different body 
from what it is now, and would be much more truly 
representative of horticulturists, even though the new 
members of Council were elected on the present system. 
But, without having recourse to a new charter, with 
the number of Council remaining as at present, much 
might be done by the Council remitting some of its 
functions to other bodies of Fellows. This would 
necessitate a change in the organisation of 
“ B. The Committees. —My experience of the British 
Association for the Advancement of Science leads me to 
believe that much might be effected by the institution 
of a General Committee, who might do much that is 
now done by the Council—a sort of “ Lower House ” in 
fact, to be organised somewhat as follows :— 
“(1) The nucleus of the General Committee to be 
nominated in the first instance by the Council. Sub¬ 
sequent elections to the committee to be made by the 
committee itself, the Council, perhaps, reserving the 
right of veto, but not more. (2) Every candidate for 
election into committee shall be a Fellow of the society. 
We may, as heretofore, utilise the help of botanists 
and others who are not Fellows, and may give them 
in return certain privileges, but not that of belonging 
to the General Committee, which, as will be seen, 
will be in reality a governing body. (3) The qualifica¬ 
tion for admission to the committee shall be evidence, 
not only of the desire, but also of the ability to 
promote horticulture ; that is to say, the candidate 
must be a person of horticultural reputation, and likely 
to be a useful member of the committee. (4) Every 
candidate shall be duly proposed at one meeting of the 
committee, with a written certificate stating his claims, 
and shall be voted for at some subsequent meeting. 
That is to say, the election shall be of a definite, formal 
character. (5) Anyone elected a member of the 
General Committee shall remain on the committee 
during his life, or as long as he pleases, subject to 
removal for special reasons, in a manner to be specially 
provided. (6) The numbers of the committee shall not 
be limited. (7) Such members of the committee as may 
from time to time be elected to serve on the Council 
shall, while serving on the Council, continue to 
exercise their functions as members of the committee. 
(8) The committee so constituted shall, each year, form, 
out of their own numbers—{a) A Fruit Committee, ( b) 
A Floral Committee, (c) A “ Nomenclature ” or 
“ Name” Committee, (d) A Scientific Committee, ( e ) A 
