108 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



very little place, and very limited application, wherever and 

 whenever man's truest intelligence is brought in as a factor. 

 Certainly we shall all agree that these natural laws should find 

 no place where man is dealing with his fellow-man. A struggle 

 for existence with the powers and forces of the natural world we 

 must all ever have, since work, labour, struggle — call it which 

 you will— is a condition — a happy condition as I think— of our 

 being ; but an internecine struggle for existence, as between man 

 and man, should never find a place, and can never find a place, 

 where man's truest intelligence, and man's highest capacities 

 of kindness, long-suffering, and self-sacrifice are allowed to have 

 free play. These higher capabilities will neutralise, and more 

 than neutralise, the natural law of " struggle for existence," and 

 will lead man — or Christian man at least— to desire, and to use 

 his utmost endeavour to secure, the survival and wellbeing of 

 all his fellow-men, instead of the fittest only ; and the happiness 

 of all others besides — nay, even above and beyond — his own. 



And as it ever should be — and to a great extent is — in the 

 relation of man with man, so also, it appears to me, in his deal- 

 ings with plants and animals, this same counter-balancing force 

 is introduced as soon as ever, and whenever, the intelligence of 

 man is brought to bear upon the point. He no longer permits 

 the stronger to bear down the weaker, or the lower and more 

 prolific forms to elbow out the higher ; and so, I think, it comes 

 to pass that we have to-day all these wonderfully beautiful and 

 various forms of the Chrysanthemum evolved, in so compara- 

 tively short a time, from the forms originally introduced. They 

 are due to the kindly intelligence of gardeners, helping on the 

 naturally existing law of and capacity for development, and 

 counteracting that other natural law of " struggle for existence " 

 which would otherwise have stifled, almost at birth, many and 

 many a lovely, but less robust or less prolific, variety. 



And therefore I think that, in looking round upon the multi- 

 tude of lovely Chrysanthemums we have to-day, we gardeners 

 may well be encouraged to go forward, not only with this same 

 genus, but also with many another, being confident that, if 

 the same observation, care, and kindly intelligence and love of 

 plants be bestowed on them, we may, in years to come, reap 

 a somewhat similar reward as that which crowns our hundredth 

 anniversary to-day. 



