REPORT OF THE CONFERENCE ON GENETICS 73 
reception given them by the Society. As an Austrian he had gladly 
accepted the invitation extended to his country. He was convinced that 
the latest developments in the study of hybridisation had received the 
greatest impetus from that Conference. In 1900 he had, contem- 
poraneously with Professor de Vries and Professor Correns, been able to 
rediscover and re-prove the Mendelian laws which had so long been lying 
unnoticed, unregarded, in the library at Brunn. Since then the 
conditions of the study had been changed by a long series of memorable 
discoveries. Dr. Nigeli had published materials written by Mendel’s 
own hand on the subject of hybrids, which had been of the greatest value 
to science ; andin England Mr. Bateson had rendered the greatest possible 
services to the furtherance of the science of genetics. The Royal Horti- 
cultural Society did indeed deserve the warmest, heartiest thanks of all 
European men of science, both for summoning the Conference and also 
for the princely hospitality with which it had entertained its visitors. 
M. Philippe de Vilmorin, speaking in English, said :—Mr. President, my 
Lords, Ladies, and Gentlemen,—-Two days ago, as many of you can re- 
member, I was asked to answer toa toast at the dinner of the Horticultural 
Club. I then said I was not prepared and complained of it; but Sir Daniel 
Morris told me it was all right because “ you would enjoy your dinner much 
better than if you had known beforehand that you were to speak.’’ To-day 
I knew beforehand that I would have to respond for my part of the toast of 
the guests. I say I knew it before, but I must tell you that all the same I 
haye enjoyed my most excellent dinner. First of all, I enjoyed it because 
it was so very good; and in the second place because I knew you would 
give me all your indulgence, and also because it is always easy to return 
thanks for things you have really enjoyed. I knew that I should have to 
ask for your indulgence for my bad English, because on the other side of 
the Channel we are not accustomed to after-dinner speaking as you are in 
this country. I think, to use a terminology to which you all are accus- 
tomed, the talent for after-dinner speeches is with us of a “ recessive”’ 
character. I think, perhaps, after a few years in England, you would 
find us using “ cryptoméres ” in our speeches. But speeches after dinner 
are generally a banality. I could doit very easily. I could say, for instance, 
that horticulture is at the same time a trade, an art, and a science; that 
horticulture is the most difficult and the most abstract of all the sciences. 
But I do not think it is to those points that we owe our great popularity. 
I think it is only because we have, first of all, the good luck to deal with 
things that are, ladies excepted, the most fascinating gifts of creation, and 
it is, besides, because we every day of our lives come in close contact with 
Nature. By doing that we better ourselves, and we also try to better 
others by the contemplation of these beauties of Nature. We cannot live 
close to them without trying to know the laws of Nature, and the great 
problems of heredity and of the origin of life, and that is why our calling 
is so popular and why we like it so much. I have already told you that 
I knew it would be easier for me to thank you for what you have done 
for us. I have spoken already of this excellent banquet. You must not 
think that the dinner has been our only enjoyment, because there have 
been the fruits of the Conference. When I received a fortnight ago this 
most convenient little volume of tickets, I thought it would last for ever, 
