CIV PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



mands; but this occasion was a special one and it afforded him great 

 pleasure on behalf of the Council of the Society to offer a hearty welcome 

 to the visitors from the Overseas Dominions. The Royal Horticultural 

 Society for more than a hundred years had kept in touch with various 

 parts of the Empire. In its early days it had despatched collectors to 

 explore and bring to this country a number of notable plants which had 

 been cultivated in the Society's Gardens and distributed to the Fellows 

 and through them to the public at large. The Far East, West and East 

 Africa, Austraha, the West Indies and Western Canada had all been 

 visited in turn and their floral treasures made known and introduced into 

 British gardens. Among the collectors employed the most prominent 

 were Douglas and Fortune. Douglas introduced not only several notable 

 coniferous trees, such as the Wellingtonia, Redwood, the well-known jilie 

 and admired Douglas fir, and Pinus insignis, but he brought over such mii 

 now familiar plants as the flowering currant, Ceanothus, Gaillardias, jiii 

 Clarkias, Lupins, Penstemons, Mimulus, and Eschscholzias. This was Effec 

 eighty years ago. Fortune some twenty years later explored parts of 

 China and introduced the Chusan daisy, the parent of the Pompon 

 Chrysanthemum. He was afterwards employed by the Indian Govern- 

 ment in introducing the Chinese tea-plant into Assam (where later! ii 

 the indigenous tea was found) and in taking part in experimental planta-lfgf 

 tions, which probably laid the foundation of the present colossal tealyy 

 industries of India and Ceylon. It is not too much to say that through! 

 the efforts of the Royal Horticultural Society, involving a large expendi-liop^ 

 ture extending over a long period of years, the most notable plantsljij^ 

 found in various parts of the Empire were so widely distributed thatljjjj 

 there is hardly a garden existing in any part of the British Islands oiMfjjjji 

 of the Colonies that is not richer to-day for the Society's efforts. 



It is only right in this connexion to mention also the service A fjj, 

 rendered by the Royal Gardens of Kew. The successive Directors oMgjj^ 

 that establishment were instrumental in securing the publication of Aj^p 

 series of useful Handbooks dealing with the floras of various parts oM,^^^^ 

 the Empire. Amongst these were the flora of British India, by Siij 



Joseph Hooker, the flora of Australia, by Baron von Miiller and Mr,! j^j^^i 



W( 



Bentham, and the flora of New Zealand, by Sir Joseph Hooker. The 

 floras of Mauritius, Hong-Kong, and the West Indies are also worthj, 

 of mention. More recently the floras of tropical Africa and the Cap(j ^ 

 have been dealt with. Kew has also trained and sent out a band o\ , 

 capable men to take charge of Colonial Botanic Gardens and assist i: 

 developing Colonial industries. Btorsj]^ 



Possibly the most notable effort of the Royal Horticultural Societ; 

 in the interest of the Overseas Dominions in recent years has beeM^ ^'^ 

 the organization of a series of successful Colonial Fruit Shows. T' 

 first was held in 1904, the year when was celebrated the centenary 

 the Society and the building of the new Hall. This w^as also the Jubil 

 year of the Colonial Office. They were glad to welcome among the] 

 Sir Charles Lucas and Mr. Grindle as representatives of that Offi' 



to-dav. It was also the year when the West India Committee, whicHL 



