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HORTICULTURAL S0CII-:TY of NKW YORK. 



see that though in Eiighmd we had some idea of the work that was going 

 on, we had no idea of its comprehensiveness and magnitude. We try to feel 

 proud of our country, and we always succeed more or less. 



While we appreciate what others are doing, we must not too greatly 

 belittle what is going on in the Old World. And it is with great pleasure 

 that I say that I believe the first conference of this kind, though on a much 

 smaller scale and in many ways less important than tiiis conference, did take 

 place in London, and 1 believe the germs which have grown and developed 

 into such an important undertaking were laid possibly at that meeting of the 

 Royal Horticultural Society in London. 



The rapidity with which these processes of fertilization go is most won- 

 derful. We have hammered rather hard at the progress that has come about 

 in science and horticulture through discoveries. I don't know that we have 

 heard too much of that, but we have heard a good deal. A gentleman said 

 yesterday that the Mendelian law^ was not a law, that it was not true ; but it 

 has this merit, that it is the only law that we have as yet on this subject, and, 

 like a great many other things,, it is growing very fast, and I believe it will 

 do much more for us in the future. Yesterday was so full, owing to the 

 national genius of the country, that a gentleman said it was worth a thousand 

 dollars. I would not put it at such a high figure, but it is worth a great deal. 



If you fancy yourself in a new country, especially in a new city, trying 

 to find your way about ; there are some cities the names of whose streets are 

 put up ; in other cities they are not put up, or not very conspicuously put up. 

 In such a city as that, think of the traveler trying to find his way ; he hunts 

 about for the names of the streets and never finds them ; but when it dawns 

 upon him that the streets are arranged in any particular order, that there is 

 not a confusion, that through three-fourths of that city at least the streets are 

 all in arithmetical order, all rectangular and all arranged so that he knows 

 where to look for a certain number, there is an illumination, — that is what 

 Mendel's law does always for the student. When it first dawns upon him 

 that there is regularity, and- the further he goes the more he will find this, 

 the feeling in his mind is not less acute than is that of the tra\eler who dis- 

 covers that there is order in the streets of New York. 



There remain, of course, in our country, just as in New York there re- 

 main, those extraordinary complex streets, the growth of time, matted to- 

 gether, tangled up, that we cannot see our way through; but, having found 

 our way through a great piece of it, we are confident that in time we can 

 find our way through the whole region. I should like to express in the 

 warmest way our thanks to the officers of the society, to you, sir, and to Mr. 

 Barron, and to Dr. Britton, for their kindness in bringing us together and 

 giving us the opportunity of mind meeting mind, as we have done in the last 

 few days, and I am quite sure that if such meetings are continued, as I feel 

 confident they will be, in the future, that we shall see very great results come 

 from them. 



D. Morris: I have very great pleasure to second the remarks made by 

 Mr. Bateson as representing one section of the visitors to this conference. 

 It has been to me the greatest possible pleasure to come here and to take 

 part in the conference. When it was first suggested that I come, I was afraid 



