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of everybody who had got a variety to sell putting whatever 

 name he liked upon it. It was a very humble, practical 

 work, which would be a great convenience to horticulturalists. 

 There ought to be some authority which would define and 

 decide the limits of application of each name. 



Mr. Shirley Hibberd said reference had been made to the 

 labours of the Society, and they were all interested in the success 

 of the Society as a whole, and in the perfection of the several 

 departments of its work. The Horticultural Society was con- 

 tinually dealing with varieties of Orchids, much more frequently 

 with what might be called garden varieties than with new 

 species ; and it might have occurred to many and had often 

 occurred to himself, and Dr. Masters justified him in his 

 opinion, that with the greater part of these garden varieties, 

 Orchid growers, as scientific men, had absolutely nothing to do. 

 He was glad that Dr. Masters insisted that there should be one 

 rule for all plants, one method, one system, so that a man should 

 not have to go to all the schools of botany. One principle should 

 be applied, and it should be applied resolutely. It had not been 

 applied resolutely ; it had been trifled with ; and he proposed to 

 them as an Orchid Conference, as business men, that they 

 should repudiate all garden varieties. If Mr. Blank could 

 find an Orchid with a spot in one corner of a petal, he gave 

 it a name and a money value, and at once sold the plant ; 

 and when he had done so, what did it matter to him what 

 value it had in the books or annals of the Society? The 

 Conference might simplify their labours by kicking out all 

 these garden varieties. They could not prevent men giving 

 plants ridiculous names. But he would tell them what they 

 could do, and this concerned them as a Society. They could 

 repudiate these ridiculous names when the plants came before 

 them ; and he had proposed, and he proposed again, that the 

 hands of workers should be strengthened by a General Working 

 Botanical Committee, which would have, of necessity, often 

 to deal with Orchids, and to whom a worker could take a plant 

 and say: " Is that a good species ? " If the answer were " No," 

 then he could deal with it as a garden variety. He was afraid 

 they could never have the assistance of a vast museum of tens 

 of thousands of dried Orchids, or a large library to refer to. 

 Supposing they could build up such a museum and library, he 



