be cultivated on small means was developing in many circles, and as we have to-day our chrysanthemum exhibitions, so there were then special exhibitions of pelargoniums, of pinks, and of other flowers[1].
Hügel, more than anyone, strove to promote horticulture among us in its most diverse branches. Archduke Anthony, an accurate observer and lover of the flower world, started the idea of advancing horticulture in Austria by the foundation of a Horticultural Society [Gartenbaugesellschaft], and in Hügel he found the personality which seemed best fitted for the realization of this idea.
Hügel prepared a memorandum setting forth the utility of the proposed institution, and having by this detailed and convincing statement obtained the approval of the Chancellor of State, Prince Metternich, he next, in conjunction with members of the nobility who had already shewn themselves lovers of the garden, addressed a memorial to the Government asking permission to found a Horticultural Society. This petition bore the signatures of Prince Eduard Lichnowski, of Counts Philipp Stadion, Caspar Sternberg, Eugen Czernin, of Baron Karl von Hügel, and of Baron Sigismund Pronay. This was in the year 1827. The permission to establish the new society followed, with the cognizance of the Agricultural Society [k. k. Landwirthschaftsgesellschaft], in the year 1830. But the approval of the statutes, elaborated by Hügel in conjunction with the other projectors, was retarded for years by the dilatory manner in which business was transacted in those days. Meanwhile Hügel had begun his great journey, but so much was he the very soul of the undertaking that, at the suggestion of the Archduke Anthony, it was decided to postpone the estab--
- ↑ See Notes (11).
