l2;V2 



JOUBNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The great want at Wisley now is a laboratory for Scientific Research 

 to investigate some of the multitudinous questions which are every day 

 arising connected with plant diseases, plant pests, and the laws which 

 govern plant life and development. Wisley is an ideal spot for the carrying 

 on of such research, as it is absolutely in the country, with not a house 

 within sight to contaminate the air with its smoke — nothing but open 

 commons and fields stretching away in every direction. The one thing 

 wanted is another benefactor willing to have his name handed down to 

 posterity side by side with those of Baron Schroder and Sir Thomas 

 Hanbury in the annals of the Society as the founder of the Laboratory 

 for Scientific Research at Wisley. (Figs. 60, 64, 65.) 



Meanwhile a capital site for the New Hall had been found in Vincent 

 Square, and the building was rising apace. And as Sir Thomas Hanbury 



Fig. 57. — Wisley as it now is —The Liter Pond. 



was the donor of the Garden, so Baron Sir Henry Schroder, Bart., V.M.H., 

 will ever be regarded as the Father of the Hall ; for though many others 

 helped most generously and most ungrudgingly towards it, it is above all 

 due to the perseverance, and owing to the liberality, of Baron Schroder that 

 the New Hall was ever brought within the range of practical politics. Not 

 only did he subscribe £5,000 to the building ; not only did he also undertake 

 at his own expense the fitting up of the Library and the moving of all the 

 books, but chiefest of all he kept on for years perseveringly repeating, 

 " We must have a new Hall, gentlemen, we must have a new Hall," until 

 at last, by dint of constant and dogged reiteration, he got the majority of the 

 Council and of the Fellows to believe him, and to consent to follow on if 

 he would point the way. Thus, without for a moment ignoring the good 

 work of others, it is Baron Schroder's name we must pass down to the 



