CViii PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



which he submitted this toast, and the company for the way it has 

 been received. 



Monsieur Maurice de Vilmorin proposed " Sir Trevor Lawrence, 

 Bart., K.O.V.O., President of the Eoyal Horticultural Society." He 

 said : I feel very keenly the honour conferred upon me to-day in having 

 been asked to propose the toast of the health of our Chairman, Sir 

 Trevor Lawrence, President of the Eoyal Horticultural Society. This 

 honour has been conferred upon me, I feel sure, on account of your 

 loving memory of my dear brother Henri, with whom I have so often 

 shared the pleasure of taking part in so many of your Society's 

 meetings. Warm-hearted and numerous are his friends here to-day, 

 and I cannot forbear recalling how your Secretary once said of him, 

 " You know we should always have considered him quite an English- 

 man, only that he spoke English so well. " The long period of my con- 

 nexion with horticulture possibly enables me to realize better than the 

 younger men amongst us the wonderful achievement of the last quarter 

 of a century's work in the development of the E.H.S. At the beginning 

 of our President's term of office in 1885 the number of the Fellows 

 was a very small, though honourable, roll. How different in number 

 from the vast Society at present of thirteen thousand Fellows, all 

 interested in different ways in the grand pursuit of horticulture ! Of 

 the financial position of the Society I need say nothing, as the magnifi- 

 cent welcome extended to us foreign visitors to-night speaks far 

 more eloquently than any word of mine. Permit me also to congratu- 

 late the E.H.S. on the possession of such a grand and appropriate 

 building as this is, to be the central home of the horticulture of the 

 whole world. Material progress was bound to follow as a natural 

 consequence of the wisdom and genial personal influence of your most 

 excellent President, Sir Trevor Lawrence, who, I understand from the 

 Secretary, is not, as so many presidents are, a mere figure-head, but j 

 one who never misses a meeting of your Council, and bestows the 

 utmost personal care and superintendence on all, even the smallest 

 details of the Society's work; and, as you all know well, details make j 

 up perfection, though perfection itself is far from being a detail. With 

 such assiduous devotion to the Society's work bestowed by your 

 President over a series of nearly thirty years, there is little wonder 

 that he should have similarly infected your Council and all your 

 officers as well, and have brought about as its result the present 

 magnificent position and iufluence of the E.H.S. of this country. If j 

 I may be allowed one word in conclusion, it is this : that your President I 

 has also very quickly conquered all who have ever had the good 

 fortune to be brought into personal contact with him — conquered them 

 by the only force worth conquering with — the amiability and good 

 grace of his charming personality. I have the greatest pleasure, 

 therefore, in asking you all to join with me in drinking to the good 

 health and long life of your President, Sir Trevor Lawrence. 



Sir Trevor Lawrence, in briefly responding, said he thanked the 

 company with all his heart for the warmth with which they received 



