296 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
CONFERENCE ON BULB-GROWING IN THE BRITISH ISLES. 
August i, 1916. 
An Exhibition of Dry Flowering Bulbs was held for the first time by 
the Royal Horticultural Soicety at its fortnightly Meeting on August 1, 
1916 (see p. xcvi). The schedule included Daffodils, Tulips, and other 
bulbs, corms and tubers such as Crocuses, Anemones, &c. Exhibitors 
were required to give a formal declaration that the whole of their 
exhibits were grown by themselves on land in their own or in their 
firm's occupation in Great Britain, Ireland, or the Channel Islands. 
The object of the exhibition was to encourage bulb-growing as a 
British industry, and a Conference was held in the Lecture Room on 
the same day with a view to giving greater impetus to the movement, 
to making the occasion a more auspicious one for the inauguration 
of an important industry on a larger scale than heretofore, and to 
demonstrating the excellence to which such bulbs can be grown in 
Great Britain and Ireland. 
THE CONFERENCE. 
Lieut. -Colonel Sir Albert K. Rollit, Litt.D., Member of Council, 
presided at the Conference, and, in his opening remarks, said : This 
Dry Bulb Show may be a dry subject, and it certainly cannot be 
called the " blooming " Show, but it is very instructive and educa- 
tional, from horticultural, scientific, commercial, and international 
standpoints ; and, as Ex-President of the Association of British 
Chambers of Commerce and of the London and Hull Chambers, I am 
glad to respond to the Council's request to me to preside and give 
a brief introductory address. For " the Royal Horticultural " exists 
to do its best, horticulturally and commercially, and by way of organiza- 
tion, for the great and growing trade which it has brought into line 
and helped to place at the head of the Horticulture of the world. 
When once asked to propose "The Trade of Ireland," Dean Swift 
replied : " Sir, I drink no memories " ; and all in Great Britain want 
none but prosperous memories and good prospects in the victorious 
world-peace of the future, greater than the " Pax Romana " of 
Tacitus and the historians, for that was a peace of force, a peace of 
subjection, a peace of the sword, the hilt of which was at Rome and 
the point everywhere, whereas the peace we pray for is to be the 
" Pax Britannica, " one of free nationalities, great and small. But even 
such a peace will bring its long years of strain and tension after war, 
and these must be prepared for in advance — for a fight for markets, 
new and old — and, alas, with a sad experience of the results of a want 
