50 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
this occasion ; but if any lady—and I appeal more particularly to the 
ladies, for they are great admirers of flowers, and have a great influence 
on the opposite sex—if any lady present happens to have influence with 
any millionaire, I ask her to be good enough to urge the claims of the 
Royal Horticultural Society for a hall in London, and whether she 
succeeds or not, the Society will be deeply indebted to her. I wish, in 
conclusion, to say once more how grateful we are to our foreign friends 
who are gathered round us in such numbers to-day. I beg to thank the 
guests who have been good enough to be here to-night. This will be a 
red-letter day in the history of the Society, and I hope on some future 
occasion to have the great pleasure of seeing you all here again. 
In proposing the toast of ‘‘The Visitors’? Mr. CHartes EK. SHEA 
said :—I believe somewhere there is a telegram telling me I should have 
to propose the toast that Sir John Llewelyn had undertaken to propose. 
I had not the advantage enjoyed by Professor Henslow of receiving that 
telegram before I started, but on arriving I received the digestion- 
destroying command of the Secretary to take the place of Sir John. Of 
course the Secretary has made an enemy of me for life. But at the 
same time I felt that the toast was one that should be so easy, so pleasant, 
to propose that I accepted it. The occasion is graced to-night by the 
presence of many ladies, not only from England, but from abroad. Sir 
Trevor Lawrence has just laid a rather heavy charge on the ladies to 
build us a hall. Now they know what they have to do. Sir Trevor 
Lawrence has in his mind what we are all thinking—‘“ the hand that 
rocks the cradle rules the world,’’ and we of the Royal Horticultural 
Society would be the first to submit to and to admit the sweet sway which 
they have over us all. I do not think that we horticulturists altogether 
appreciate the great good which ladies have done for horticulture. We 
have to-night many distinguished visitors. We have the Ministers—the 
Belgian Minister, who is the representative of a country famed all the 
world over for its love of and its skill in horticulture. Then we have the 
Netherlands Minister, a keen friend of horticulture, who, in the Nether- 
lands, holds the same position as Sir Trevor Lawrence does here. Time 
necessitates my passing by our English friends—Mr. Bateson, whose 
name we all know; Sir Michael Foster, whose absence, through 
illness, we all so much regret. But I will pass to the foreigners. 
We have among us no less than four representatives of our cousins 
across the water. We receive them to-night not only in their 
individual capacity, but as sent by the Government of the United 
States of America as a token of friendship and appreciation. We have 
Mr. Webber, Mr. Hays, Mr. Fairchild, and Mr. Swingle. France sends 
us many guests to-night—Monsieur de la Devansaye, the two Messieurs 
de Vilmorin, and others. Germany sends us again our friend Herr 
Schmidt, and we have from Holland our distinguished guest Professor 
Hugo de Vries and Herr Simon de Graaf. There are many others here 
that lack of time alone prevents me from mentioning. But let me deal 
for one moment with the impressions that the Conference has left on my 
mind. I think the impression our visitors will take back with them, as I 
shall take away with me, is the immense practical use of the Congress 
we have held. Our visitors, I think, will take back certain lessons. 
