154 JOtJKNAL OF THE BOYAL HOBTICTJLTUKAL SOCIETY. 



MASTEES' BOOK ON VEGETABLE TERATOLOGY. 

 By Professor Hugo de Vries. 

 [Being the first " Masters Lecture."] 



Horticulture and botany, practice and science, have always been most 

 intimately connected. The philosophical mind of the student of nature 

 is anxious to discover the laws which give the clue to an explanation of 

 the phenomena he observes. From time immemorial the best way to find 

 this clue has been the combination of the facts scattered over large fields 

 of human knowledge. The florist looks for his information to botany, 

 and the botanist enlarges his views by the study of horticultural observa- 

 tions. 



Broad conceptions and far-reaching theories have been the result of 

 this mutual co-operation and the doctrine of evolution is based on 

 scientific inquiry as well as on the experience of plant and animal 

 breeders. 



Among the men who have worked along these philosophical lines of 

 thought, our Society honours in the first place the name of Dr. Maxwell 

 Tylden Masters. In commemoration of him these lectures have been 

 instituted. The fact that the first of them has been committed to a 

 botanist is a proof of our wish to continue his work along the same 

 broad lines. Mainly through his influence English horticulture has 

 developed itself on a sound scientific basis, whilst English botany has 

 learned to avail itself of the many data afforded by horticultural practice. 



Physiology and morphology are both concerned in the elaboration of 

 the combined field. Masters, however, preferred the morpholcgical side 

 of the questions. He thoroughly appreciated the morphological ideas of 

 Goethe and repeatedly pointed out the corroboration given to them by 

 the observations of florists. Their bearing on the problems of the 

 systematists, on the conception of species and varieties, and even on the 

 broad lines of the evolution of the vegetable kingdom, were all equally 

 dear to him. Almost unlimited were the facts at his command, many of 

 them new to science or linking previously separated groups of phenomena. 

 He not only recorded them for the use of others, but always carefully in- 

 dicated the lines in which science might utilize them. 



His most prominent work in this field is his book on Vegetable 

 Teratology. It is an inexhaustible source of information arranged in a 

 clear and logical way. Teratology has always presented special attractions 

 to students and amateurs. With a book like this in hand, they can easily 

 estimate the importance of any apparently new case and investigate it in 

 proportion to its relation to already described cases. In doing so, every 

 Boris c an contribute his part to the development of the science, and no 

 opportunity that offers itself needs to be lost through want of information. 



It is now exactly forty years since the Ray Society published this 

 volume. At that time Darwin's ideas on evolution were triumphing over 



