LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON. 45 



assume the post of chief responsibility in the famous firm of 

 Vihnorin-Andrieux et Cie, founded by his great-great-grandfather, 

 and of the intricacies of that complex business, so little understood 

 by laymen, he acquired a mastery. A born cosmopolitan, loving 

 travel and the varieties of human nature, he became to an unusual 

 degree an international link between very dissimilar groups of 

 people. He came into genetics as it were into his birthright. His 

 grandfather, Louis de Vihnorin, was one of the first who had 

 inklings of the truth as to the workings of heredity. By empirical 

 observation Louis discovered that individual plants, not distinguish- 

 able to the eye, might be quite different in their genetic properties, 

 and his expression bons etalons* marks a small but definite advance 

 on the complacent ignorance of the time. From this fragment of 

 accurate observation there grew products of enormous economic 

 significance, notably the effective improvement of sugar-beet. 

 Industry has carried the work further, but as regards the sugar- 

 beet nothing essentially new in principle has been added since 

 Louis de Vilmorin's beginning. 



It was at the Genetics Conference, called by the Royal Horti- 

 cultural Society in 1906, that Philippe first came info practical 

 contact with the Mendelian discoveries, and, having a prepared 

 mind, he became an enthusiastic disciple. When the present 

 writer stayed with him in 1909 many experiments were already 

 well begun at Verrieres, mostly still unpublished. Two of these 

 produced results of considerable interest. The first led to the 

 detection of a striking case of linkage in Pisunif, at a time when 

 very few instances of such phenomena were known. The second 

 set of experiments demonstrated the existence of an "unfixable" 

 race of short wheat, having the remarkable property of throwing 

 homozygous tall plants in every generation. In publishing J an 

 account of this family de Vilmorin suggested an interpretation, 

 but there is probably more behind. 



In 1912 he organized, almost single-handed, the fourth Inter- 

 national Congress of Genetics, a delightful and most profitable 

 gathering which did much to unite geneticists of all countries into 

 a harmonious body. At the concluding meeting a permanent 

 International Committee was set up at his suggestion to call 

 future Congresses, but if a time ever comes again in which such 

 an organization can meet, the bright spirit of our founder will be 

 gone. 



His strength lay in personal charm and the power of sympathy 

 with all sorts of people, from which charm commonly springs. 

 To very academic persons it seemed strange to see this brilliant 

 man of the world who had shot big game and raced yachts in the 

 best company, known everybody and seen everything, counting 

 his seedlings or analyzing the points of the preposterous mongrel 



* The essay in which this fact was first expressed was drafted in 1856, 

 t Proc. Eoy. Soc. 1911, vol. B. 84. 

 I Journ. Genetics, 1913, iii, 



