hundred subscribers, which was a gratifying evidence of public taste,
as well as encouragement for the Garden design.

We find the promised advantages of the plan thus strikingly
illustrated in an Address of the preceding date, "The study of Botany
has not been pursued in any part of the country with greater assiduity
and success than in the neighbourhood of Manchester. Far from being
confined to the higher orders of society, it has found its most
disinterested admirers in the lowest walks of life. Though to the
skill and perseverance of the cottager we are confessedly indebted
for the improved cultivation of many plants and fruits, an extensive
acquaintance with the choicest productions of nature, and a
philosophical investigation of their properties, are very frequently
to be met with in the Lancashire Mechanic. But whilst some knowledge
of the principles of Horticulture is almost universal; and the
inferior objects of attention are readily procured, it is obvious that
the difficulty and expense which attend the possession of plants of
rare, and more particularly of foreign growth, form a natural and
insurmountable obstruction to the researches of many lovers of the
science...." "Whatever regard is due to the rational gratifications
of which the most laborious life is not incapable, there is a moral
influence attendant on horticultural pursuits, which may be supposed
to render every friend of humanity desirous to promote them. The most
indifferent observer cannot fail to remark that the cottager who
devotes his hours of leisure to the improvement of his garden, is
rarely subject to the extreme privations of poverty, and commonly
enjoys a character superior to the circumstances of his condition. His
taste is a motive to employment, and employment secures him from the
temptations to extravagance and the natural consequences of dissipated
habits."[1] Further, we learn, one great object of the society is to