62 REPORT OF THE CONFERENCE ON GENETICS. 
get it, and what we especially want to do is, to help others engaged in 
like work with ourselves. Many years ago, and before the theories of 
Mendel were published, or his ideas of heredity known, we were working 
on the old theory of evolution, which still stands good for many cases. 
Kven at that time some of the people whom you eall practical were 
beginning to work, and I think contributed very important elements to 
Science. Speaking only of what I know,—my grandfather said that varia- 
tion and selection in wild plants would ultimately bring them to the 
same types as cultivated plants. At that time this opinion of his seemed 
almost paradoxical. But to test it he started with the wild carrot, and 
in only a very few generations produced something very like a garden 
variety. That is why my father, in his turn, began his experiments, 
starting from a plant of the same family. Later on he started his experi- 
ments in wheat, to prove the unity of the species, and to find out the 
variation in the F, or second generation. In this, he was not of course 
working from a practical point of view, but from a scientific ; and what 
I want to point out is this, that some of the practical men (to whose 
number I am proud to belong) have already done something to assist 
Science. The only thing we claim is that we have helped scientific men, 
and we ask them to give us in return the results of their experiments. I ask 
you to join me in thanking the Royal Horticultural Society for organising 
this Conference for the improvement of knowledge, and the Horticultural 
Club for inviting us to this magnificent banquet. 
Professor Wittmack: Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen,—We have seen 
all that you have done on the present occasion, and we congratulate you 
on haying called together men of science and men of practice. The man 
of practice can hybridise plants, and working with the man of science 
they together can hybridise nations. Your programme shows how 
universal your Society is, and we shall all be anxious to read your 
Report of the Conference, which we hope will be published as soon as 
possible. I have so enjoyed your Society and am so struck with the 
work you are doing, that I cannot say how glad I am to be among you. 
Professor Johannsen: Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen,—I must say, 
what all others have said, I am quite surprised at the way in which you 
have entertained us. I am only a man of science, and I once thought 
with Liebig that there was no common ground of action between the 
practical and the scientific. Now I know that Science and Practice can 
and do go hand in-hand together, especially in horticultural matters. It 
is marvellous to see what you English men of science are doing, and in 
particular what the Cambridge school is doing; it is marvellous, it is 
excellent. All present, Germans and Frenchmen, Austrians and Italians 
Swedes and Norwegians, Belgians, Danes, and Dutch, all of us beg to 
thank you. 
Lieut.-Colonel Prain, F.R.S., next proposed “The Chairman.” He 
said :—Gentlemen,—The part our Chairman has taken in public affairs 
is a matter of contemporary history. We know what he has done in the 
world of sport. Has he not hunted and shot? Has he not been captain 
of a redoubtable cricket team? Is he not now President of a still 
more redoubtable Football League? Has he not taken a share in the 
Congress of the Auricula Society? We know what his work has been 
