JOURNAL 



OF THE 



Royal Horticultural Society. 



Vol. XXXV. 1909. 

 Part II. 



THE MASTEES MEMOEIAL LECTURES. 



Dr. Maxwell T. Masters, F.E.S., F.L.S. (1833-1907), at the time of 

 his death was officially connected with our Society as its Foreign 

 Corresponding Secretary and as Acting- Chairman of the Scientific Com- 

 mittee. His connexion with that Committee had continued without 

 a break from its inception in 1868, and his acting- chairmanship from the 

 time when, on his retirement from the Eoyal Gardens, Kew, Sir Joseph 

 Hooker, K.C.V.O., F.E.S., F.L.S., V.M.H., still, happily, the Chairman of 

 the Committee, was obliged to withdraw from taking an active part in its 

 meetings. 



Dr. Masters always looked forward to the meetings of the Committee 

 with pleasure and never grudged the time they took out of his busy life, 

 but maintained a keen and never-flagging interest in its work. His kindly 

 firmness, his ready sympathy, and his wide knowledge of botanical science, 

 always at the service of his colleagues, made him an ideal chairman and 

 endeared him to all the members of that Committee. 



Not only was he possessed of wide knowledge but he had in a rare 

 degree the faculty of being able to impart to others the knowledge he 

 possessed. In his many writings, especially in the ' Gardeners' Chronicle,' 

 of which he was Editor, and his lucid lectures, he never lost an opportunity 

 of showing, in language to be " understanded of the people," how the 

 discoveries of science might be utilized in the service of the practical 

 horticulturist. 



In order that his memory should be kept alive the Council of our 

 Society invited the Fellows to subscribe towards a fund for the establish- 

 ment of annual lectures by eminent men of science, who would bring 

 before the body of horticulturists the newest discoveries in the sciences 

 they had made their own, believing that thus the good work which 

 Dr. Masters did so well might be continued and extended. 



The first of the " Masters Lectures " was delivered on June 22, 1909, 

 by Professor Hugo de Vries, of the University of Amsterdam. The text 

 of this lecture is given below. 



VOL. XXXV. M 



