iv PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
ment of this training by the individual ; and it would advance public 
education and national development by enlarging its area, and increase 
the probability of the production of one or more of those scientific 
or industrial geniuses who moved the world, such as Newton, Watt, 
Wedgwood, or Bessemer. The creation of one of such would repay a 
million-fold the cost of national education, as the result of substituting 
the rule of science for the rule of thumb, which was no longer im- 
plicitly reliable, though of course it was based on the experience of 
ages, which, however, might not only lead, but mislead. 
Now, however, the Society could fairly congratulate itself that 
whatever industries, and they were many, had been nationally neg- 
lected, and even surrendered to our enemies, like some dye trades, 
no reproach rested upon the Society, for it had organized and co- 
ordinated the British horticultural trade, and by its bi-weekly ex- 
hibitions in its own building in Vincent Square, and its great shows at 
the Temple, Chelsea Hospital, and Holland House, had so educated the 
trade and its customers and the public that it had become the most 
productive and important in the world, a matter on which his experi- 
ence as a judge not only at the Society's shows, but also at the similar 
exhibitions in France and Belgium, justified him in forming the opinion 
he had expressed. And even in this war-time horticultural things were 
not so bad as might have been expected, while the Council had also 
found time and means to help by a fund of many thousands of pounds 
to relieve and restore horticulture in Serbia and Northern France, for 
which it had received the thanks of both countries, and especially 
of gallant Serbia, personally, through the wife of its Prime Minister, 
M. Passitch. But the greatest service of the Society was that while 
many industries had languished owing to the neglect of education and 
the consequent non-application of science to industries, the Society 
had taken all the steps in its power to identify itself with scientific 
training, investigation, and inventions, and with the many branches 
of science at the base of horticulture, by its work in London and at its 
gardens, laboratories, and means of experimental research at Wisley, 
and had thus placed itself and the great horticultural trade it repre- 
sented abreast of the times and of modern thought and development, 
and so rendered the best service to trade and industry, to labour, 
and to the commerce and culture of the country. 
A question relating to the membership of the Library Committee 
was introduced, and it was urged that the meetings of the Committee 
should be resumed. 
Mr. George Paul proposed a vote of thanks to the President, 
Chairman, and Council, which was seconded by Mr. Gerald Loder, 
who at the same time expressed the hope that the annual contribution 
to the revision of Pritzel's Index would be reinstated as soon as the 
Council saw their way clear to do so. 
