ON THP: WORK OF THE NARCISSUS & TULIP COMMITTEE. 189 



class Certificates and Awards of Merit, as some difficulty was likely to 

 arise from flowers being brought first before the Floral Committee and 

 dealt with by them without being submitted to us. 



In 1890 a Conference on Daffodils was held at Chiswick, which 

 marked a great advance in knowledge during the five years, and of which 

 all can read in the Journal of the Society, vol. xii. page 288 ct seq. 

 The number of varieties registered up to that time was thirty-nine. With 

 the exception of the year 1895 the meetings of the Committee have been 

 held regularly each spring, and though the nature of the work is changed 

 somewhat (Tulips having been added to our care this year, 1902), the 

 functions now exercised do not differ largely from those of the Fruit and 

 Floral Committees, except perhaps when we make a quasi-scientific 

 excursion into the domains of the Merodon, as was done the other day ; 

 and I feel that there is no longer any need of a special Honorary Secretary 

 or Correspondent. During my fifteen years of office the work has been a 

 source of great pleasure to me, I have made many friendships which 

 I value highly, and I have to thank the Members of the Committee most 

 gratefully for all their loyal assistance. In his letter asking me to act 

 as Secretary Professor Foster wrote : " The Daffodil Committee is in 

 great want of a Secretary who will drive it with a firm hand/' and if 

 under a variety of Chairmen I may have seemed at times to "drive" 

 unasked, it should be remembered that such were the terms of my 

 appointment, and that I have been striving throughout for a uniformity 

 both of policy and method. 



