THE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK 



and completed in England, and the English language was as 

 familiar to him as his native tongue. The Vilmorins had long 

 been notable linguists ; even his great-grandfather, Andre de Vil- 

 morin, was familiar with at least three languages, and the busi- 

 ness relations of the firm made this accomplishment a valuable 

 asset. The young Philippe also had the advantage of close asso- 

 ciation with his father for some years before he was admitted in 

 1897, as a member of the firm. Meanwhile he had become, in 

 iSy5, a licentiate in natural sciences of the faculty of sciences of 

 Paris, and was fully equipped to succeed his father as head of 

 Vilmorin-Andrieux et Cie when this duty was suddenly thrust 

 upon him in 1899. 



His grandfather had been particularly interested in the im- 

 provement of strains of cultivated plants by selection; his father 

 had devoted more attention to the practical aspects of hybridiza- 

 tion for the production of new varieties; he himself, realizing 

 more fully than they the dependence of practice upon theory, was 

 especially devoted to the scientific side of horticulture, and assisted 

 in the establishment upon a sound basis of the new science of 

 genetics. He was an active member of the third international 

 conference on genetics, held at London in 1906, and was the very 

 life of the fourth conference, at Paris, in 1911, serving as secre- 

 tary, and editing the volume of proceedings. He was also a mem- 

 ber of the international botanical congresses at Paris, in 1900, at 

 Vienna, in 1905, and at Brussels, in 1910. 



It goes without saying that a man of his type was a member, 

 and an active one, of many scientific societies, and there is no oc- 

 casion to enumerate them here. It may be noted, however, that 

 not all of them were horticultural. His membership in the So- 

 ciete botanique de France dated from March 10, 1893, and when, 

 in 1904, the society visited Vierrieres-le-Buisson, the Vilmorins, 

 entertainment included a banquet in the " pare " ; and afterward, 

 Philippe de Vilmorin published at his own expense a handsome 

 illustrated volume descriptive of the garden and the plants there 

 cultivated, under the title " Hortus Vilmorinianus," and presented 

 a copy to each member of the society. His other contributions to 

 horticultural literature were chiefly scattered papers, and revised 

 editions of various handbooks published by the firm. 



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