32 REPORT OF THE CONFERENCE ON GENETICS. 
that no one who has eyer studied the whole natural order of orchids 
has failed to get the greatest possible interest from it. At the present 
time—lI believe before very long-—the collection of orchids from their 
native habitats will almost come to an end, and we shall be entirely 
dependent on those of our own raising. There is scarcely a single 
orchid grower who has not got his houses full of seedlings. We are 
all of us, I think, in that position, and we are very often disappointed. 
I refer to this matter, not to magnify or to lay any great emphasis cn 
the cultivation of orchids in particular, but to show how greatly we 
shall have to depend upon plant-breeding for our future supplies of 
these very popular and useful plants. 
We are promised many important and interesting papers, and 
the Royal Horticultural Society begs beforehand to tender its hearty 
thanks to those who have been kind enough to undertake to prepare 
them. We know of what a high value they must be by the eminent 
names attached to them. It is, of course, the intention of the Society 
to publish all the papers that will be read in a separate volume, 
distinct from its usual Jowrnal and Transactions. Our very able 
Secretary, Mr. Wilks, will be the editor of the volume, carrying on the 
work that he did so admirably at the close of our first Conference on 
Plant-breeding in the summer of 1899. 
I thank you for listening so patiently to what I have had to say, and 
I extend to you the most hearty greeting and good wishes from the 
Council of our old Society. I thank you, too, Ladies and Gentlemen, 
for being present this evening to grace the opening ceremony of our 
Conference, but most especially I thank our foreign guests for leaving — 
their far-distant homes and coming over here, at no trifling inconvenience 
and expense, to assist us in our joint deliberations on Hybridisation and 
Plant-breeding. 
*% * * 
The following were some of the most interesting exhibits shown at 
the conversazione :— 
PLANtTs EXHIBITED by Miss EH. R. Saunpers, Newnham College, 
Cambridge. 
1. Lychnis vespertina, type and yar. glabra; crossbreds (F,), and 
their offspring (F.). 
To show a simple Mendelian case where the parents differ in respect 
of one character (surface character). 
2. Datura Tatula, type and var. inermis ; D. Stramonium, type and 
var. inermis ; crossbreds (I',), and their offspring (F,). 
To show a simple Mendelian case where the parents differ in respect 
of two mdependent characters (fower-colour, and fruit character). 
3. Salvia Horminum (a) violacea, (b) rosea, (c) alba ; crossbreds (F)), 
and their offspring (F,). 
To show a simple Mendelian case where the parents differ in respect 
of one character (flower-colour), which is determined by three distinct 
factors. 
4. Stocks, Matthiola incana, M. sinuata, wallflower-leaved ten- 
week varieties ; crossbreds (I°,), and their offspring (F,). 
