ANNUAL REPORT of the ROYAL DUBLIN SOCIETY for the Year 1855. Appendix B. To the Right Honourable Lord Stanley of Alderley, President of SOCIETY. the Board of Trade. MY LORD, I HAVE the honour to submit to your Lordship the Report of this Society for the past year, being the 124th from the period of its foundation. Although the changes in the functions of the Society, effected by the adoption of the Minute of the Board of Trade of April 11, 1855, have been in more complete operation than during the previous year, yet their effects are not as yet so striking as to call for any special observation. It will be necessary, in the first place, to refer briefly to certain passages in the Report of the Department of Science and Art for 1854, which would lead to the supposition that a desire existed on the part of the Society to avoid a literal fulfilment of the obligation which the adoption of their Lordships' Minute referred to necessarily involved. After referring (p. 1.) to the conditions upon which the vote to the Society was taken, the following passage occurs:— "The limits for the collections of the two Museums were fixed as follows: "As respects the Museum of Irish Industry, it was determined That its collections shall, in future, be confined to the illustrations required by a technological Museum having reference to the Industrial Arts, and to such collections as may arise during the progress of the Geological Survey with which it is connected;" while the funds voted to the Royal Dublin Society were to be devoted only to the purchase of such objects as may be necessary for a Museum of Natural History, including Botany, Zoology, and a Mineralogy, viewed in their scientific, but not in their technological relations, and also for a Museum of Agriculture.' "The Royal Dublin Society gave a full consideration to the Minute of the Board embodying these views; and after suggesting some modifications in regard to the lectures which were adopted, agreed to accept its vote under these conditions. "It will, therefore, be sufficient, to prevent any future misunderstan ding on the application of the public funds voted by Parliament, if your Lordships drew the attention of the Council of the Royal Dublin Society to those cases in which a waste of public money may be incurred by a want of distinctness between the objects collected in the Museums of the two Institutions. With this view the Council of the Society should be informed. that the New Museum of Economic Botany, referred to in their Report, and a Museum of Manufactures which is stated to be in contemplation, embrace objects precisely similar to the collections of the Museum of Irish Industry, and that the funds voted by Parliament for each Institution are given in the full faith that they are applied to the distinct purposes specified in your Lordships' Appendix B. Minute, approved of by the Treasury, and subsequently sanctioned by Parliament." REPORT OF ROYAL DUBLIN SOCIETY. In reference to this subject the Council desire to observe, that since the adoption by the Society of their Lordships' Minute, the most scrupulous care has been taken to avoid the expenditure of money on objects which appertain more especially to the province of the Museum of Irish Industry, in support of which assertion they beg to refer to the fact, that not a single item in the accounts, which have been sent monthly to the Board of Trade, has been questioned on the grounds of the impropriety of the outlay of which it is a record. The Council wish to state that the Museum of Economic Botany at the Society's Garden was established prior to the date of their Lordships' Minute, since which period not a single object has been purchased for the collection; still the Council have much pleasure in reporting, that in consequence of the liberality of their correspondents, this Museum has been considerably extended, and is now most attractive to the visitors and students at the gardens. The Council apprehend that the acceptance of donations, of whatever kind, is no violation of the Society's engagement with their Lordships, the Minute of the Board stating," This limitation refers to future additions by purchase, but it does not extend to the collections already possessed by these Museums, or of which they may in future become possessed by donation." The Council are ignorant upon what foundation it is stated that the Society had in contemplation the foundation of a Museum of Manufactures, no such department having ever been under the consideration of even any Committee of the Society. They are aware that in the published list of donations to the Society for the years 1853 and 1854, a number of articles are enumerated under the head of "Museum of Manufactures," this designation having been employed merely for the sake of classification, no such separate department as a Museum of Manufactures being in connexion with the Society. At page li. of the Report of the Department of Science and Art, attention is drawn to the terms of admission of the public to the Botanic Garden, Library, and Museums; and it is stated that the recommendation of opening the Museum and Library more freely to the public did not appear, by the Report of the Society then presented, to have been carried into effect. The Council would here observe that, by an accidental omission, it was not stated that the Museum of Natural History had been open to the public from November previously, under the same regulation as the Botanic Garden, namely, on three days in the week free, and on two days at 6d. for adults, and 3d. for children. As regards the Library, it is apprehended that the advantages of this department are as fully secured to the public as those of any similar institution, public readers being admitted freely on every week day from eleven to five o'clock. As soon, however, as the building intended for the Museum of Natural History shall have been erected, and the present suite of rooms, now occupied by the Museum, placed at the disposal of the Committee entrusted Appendix B. with the care of the Library, the advantages of this department REPORT OF to the public will be far more freely secured than can be afforded while it is so restricted for space as at present. With reference to the observations in the Report (p. lii.) before quoted, upon the diminution in the number of visitors to certain departments in the year 1854, as compared with the year 1853, it should be observed that the diminution is more apparent than real; the year 1853 being that of the Great Industrial Exhibition in connexion with the Society, the number of visitors to the several departments was fully one-third above the average: this may be seen in the following table. ROYAL DUBLIN SOCIETY. The Council have, however, to remark upon the decrease in the number of visitors to certain of the departments during the past year, a fact which may partly be accounted for in consequence of the pre-occupation of the public mind by the events of the past year, and the occurrence of the French Industrial Exhibition, which diverted the current of visitors from Ireland towards the French capital. I have now the honour to submit in detail the Reports of the several departments of the Society for the past year. BOTANY AND HORTICULTURE. Lectures. Professor Allman, as the deputy of Dr. Harvey, who is still absent, delivered, under the direction of the Committee of Lectures, one course of twelve lectures in the theatre of the Society, attended by 1,207 persons, averaging 100 each lecture, and one course of six lectures at the Gardens, attended by 762 persons, the average being 127 at each lecture. Botanic Garden. With respect to the condition of the Botanic Garden, the Council beg leave to submit the annexed satisfactory Report of the Curator, which was laid before them by direction of the Committee having the superintendence of that department. "MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN, "In submitting to you again a brief Report on the state of your Botanic Garden, it is gratifying to observe the improvements that continue to take place from year to year in this department. When I had last the honour to address you, I stated that the REPORT OF Appendix B. conservatory, which had then been built for the cultivation of the Victoria regia and other tropical aquatic plants, had not had sufficient time afforded to prove its efficiency for this object; the SOCIETY. experience, however, of this year has proved how well it is suited for the purpose of a stove aquarium. On the 10th of last March some seeds of the Victoria regia were sown, which soon vegetated, and the young plants were sufficiently grown to transplant them into the large tank on the 15th of April; they continued to increase rapidly until the 13th of August, when the first flower was produced, the large leaves being then fully 5 feet in diameter. The plant continued to produce a succession of flowers until the middle of September, growing freely, however, until the heat of the house was discontinued in October. "Another large aquatic plant, nearly related to the former, namely, Euryale ferox, was sown about the same time as the Victoria, and within three months it flowered and perfected its seed, the leaves being then nearly six feet in diameter. As an experiment the plant was carefully removed from the aquarium about the second week in July, and planted in the pond in the open air, where it lived six weeks, and flowered during that period. Nymphæas, Nelumbiums,and other remarkable tropical aquatic plants succeeded equally well, thereby rendering the house a source of more than ordinary attraction to the public. "The principal improvement I have to report upon, as having been effected this year, is the erection of the new conservatory just finished. The Committee of Botany, with a view of keeping pace in some degree with the advanced state of the science, saw the importance of having a second range of hothouses lower than those in the first or principal range, in place of the old houses, which are fast falling into decay, so much so that the collection of orchidaceous plants and ferns, which are now so much used as examples for design in works of art, could no longer be cultivated in them. I need hardly remind you that, on this subject being represented by the Royal Dublin Society to the Board of Trade, a special grant of money was liberally made for building a portion of the proposed range as part of a general plan. The portion now built is 90 feet long by 22 feet wide, forming one wing of those conservatories, which, when finished, will consist of another wing and centre, the remainder of the old houses, which are filled with valuable plants, being so frail and unsafe that I feel it incumbent on me to press on the Council the importance of making a special appeal to the Government for means to remove and replace them by finishing the range which is now partly built. It ought to be kept in view that the British Association will most probably meet in Dublin during the autumn of 1857, when it would be very desirable to have all débris resulting from the buildings cleared away, and thus permit the garden to appear to the best possible advantage. "After the statement I made last year respecting the Botanical Museum then commenced, I fully expected that funds would be provided for its adequate maintenance. In consequence of there having been no means for heating the house during the severe REPORT OF SOCIETY. frost of last February, a number of valuable specimens were lost Appendix B. from the liquid in which they were preserved having frozen and burst the bottles. It is greatly to be regretted that means are not supplied for maintaining this department in a state of efficiency whence so much instruction can, at a very trifling outlay, be provided for the public. In the Royal Botanic Garden at Kew, a large additional public grant is being applied for enlarging the already extensive space occupied by the Museum of that establishment; and judging from the crowds of visitors who throng the different rooms, one is led to the conviction that no better application of public money could be made. The Museum attached to the Botanic Garden at Edinburgh is also well supported from the public funds. "The loss of trees and shrubs caused by the intense frost of last February, has been endeavoured to be repaired, as far as possible, by planting young plants in the place of those killed but it will be many years before these specimens acquire the size attained by some of those destroyed, The want of so many evergreen shrubs makes the garden present, in some parts, rather a bare appearance, whilst in others the clearance made was an undoubted improvement. "The herbaceous plants suffered also considerably, a good many of the more tender kinds having perished, which for the most part have been replaced by others collected during my visit to England last August. 66 Among the plants cultivated in the experimental department this season were two kinds new to British gardens, namely, the Chinese yam, Dioscorea Batatas, and the sugar Holcus, Holcus saccharatus. Through the kindness of Mr. Arthur Henderson, Pineapple Place, London, I procured six small tubers of the former, about the size of marrow fat peas, three of which were planted in pots, and placed in the conservatory, where they soon sprouted, and by the beginning of April had made stems a foot high. About the middle of the month, two of these were planted, and the other kept in a pot, the former of which were taken up in November, when they had each produced a bundle of four or five thick fleshy roots, about four inches long and half an inch diameter; from these much larger roots may be expected next season. France the Chinese yam has been cultivated with considerable success, and is likely to become of much value as a culinary esculent; roots have already been grown near Paris nineteen inches long, weighing upwards of two pounds each; it is, however, in warm dry climates, such as occur in many parts of Australia, that this vegetable will prove to be of most importance, and with this view I sent two of the small tubers I received from Mr. Henderson to the Director of the Botanic Garden at Sydney, who is now propagating them for distribution in the colony. In "The sugar Holcus appears to be too tender for being perfected in the climate of Ireland. The plants which were planted out in May all perished, whilst those kept in the conservatory until the end of June only began to grow freely in August, |