574 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 



tions of single firms which have by their energy and enterprise 

 throughout the greater part of the century contributed to the 

 adornment of the gardens alike of prince and peasant throughout 

 the globe. I may, however, be allowed to accept it as a repre- 

 sentative of Kew, and in token of the recognition on the part of 

 the Eoyal Horticultural Society of the services of that establish- 

 ment towards the advancement of its aims. The objects of 

 Kew are manifold, but primarily botanical and economic. They 

 are the introduction of new and rare plants for scientific purposes, 

 their classification, identification, description, and illustration 

 by the exhibition of living specimens to the public, and their 

 delineations in published works, and, what is of far more 

 importance, it labours for the diffusion of plants useful to 

 mankind in the arts, manufactures, and in medicine, to all parts 

 of the world, and especially to India and our colonial possessions. 

 But how is this to be accomplished without practical horticul- 

 ture, without which Kew would be limited to a herbarium, 

 museum, and library, and its gardens would be a waste ? Turn- 

 ing again to the scientific aspect of horticulture, how, without 

 its aid, is the life history of plants to be written ? Ask Darwin, 

 the pages of whose botanical works teem with grateful acknow- 

 ledgments of the aid he obtained from nurserymen and gardeners 

 in the pursuance of his far-reaching researches in the growth and 

 functions of seeds, leaves, flowers, and fruits. It is physiological 

 botany that profits most by the art of the horticulturist, for 

 without this art that great branch of the tree of knowledge 

 would be but a stunted limb. Botany and horticulture must, 

 then, go hand in hand if either is to prosper and progress. It 

 now only remains for me, on the part of the Botanist recipients 

 of the Victoria Medal of Honour, to return to the Council of the 

 Royal Horticultural Society their cordial thanks for this honour 

 thus conferred upon them, coupled with their deep sense of 

 Her Majesty's most gracious act in conferring her name upon the 

 symbol, and approving of its award. 



Dean Hole, who responded on behalf of Amateur gardeners, 

 remarked that, although only one lady was present, no other 

 could have represented the fair sex so appropriately, so royally, 

 at this Jubilee meeting, because they all acknowledged Miss 

 Jekyll as the " Queen of Spades." He went on to say that in 

 associating his name on that occasion with such a company they 



