140 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
gressive work of advanced and advancing pomology. The 
secretary of the California State Board of Horticulture 
has well and truly said in his letter of invitation: “ No 
member of the society can afford to remain away, as a 
rare treat will await him.” 
The officers of the society are: President, Prosper J. 
Berckmans, Augusta, Ga. ; first vice-president, C. L. 
Watrous, Des Moines, la.; secretary, G. C. Brackett, Law. 
rence, Kan.; treasurer, Benjamin G. Smith, Cambridge, 
Mass. 
IN HONOR OF S. REYNOLDS HOLE. 
American horticulturists honored Rev. S. Reynolds 
Hole, Dean of Rochester, England, the great English 
rosarian, at a dinner at the Hotel Savoy, New 
York city, on November 14th. Those present be¬ 
sides the guest of the evening were: W. C. Barry, 
of Rochester, chairman ; Charles A. Dana, editor of the 
New York Siin\ Messrs. W, F. Dreer, Robert Craig, 
Joseph Heacock, Alex. Scott, Howard Earle, all of Phil¬ 
adelphia ; Andrew H. Green, Judge Addison Brown, Dr. 
H. D. Noyes, Dr. Thompson, of Conn.; S. Parsons, 
superintendent of Central Park; Charles Henderson, of 
Peter Henderson & Co.; W. J. Stewart, secretary Society 
American Florists ; John N. May, C. L. Allen, P. O’Mara, 
A. T. De La Mare, James R. Pitcher, F. R. Piei'son, 
Samuel Henshaw, J. N. Gei'ard, Charles H. Allen, C. B. 
Weathered, W. A. Manda, John Young, S. C. Nash, John 
H. Taylor, Thomas Young, Jr., Ernst Asmus, H. A. 
Siebrecht, C. Thorley and W. Armstrong. 
The bill of fare bore the emblem of a rose and the 
deanery at Rochester, England, with cathedral in the 
background. Under the design was the motto, “ Floreat 
Regina Flora.” Chairman William C. Barry in welcom¬ 
ing Dean Hole, said : 
‘'We are assembled here this evening to do honor to 
England’s greatest rosarian. I think I am fully justified 
in asserting that no horticulturist coming to these shores 
will receive a more cordial welcome than Reynolds Hole. 
“We have often been with him in spirit as we have 
read and re-read his interesting and instructive books, and 
few of us, perhaps, ever expected that an opportunity 
would be afforded to meet him in person. But here we 
are face to face, and we beg to assure him in the strongest 
terms we are capable of uttering, that his visit to us is a 
source of unbounded pleasure. 
My dear sir, this gathering enables you to form but a 
faint idea of the sentiments of esteem and affection 
which are manifested towards you by every horticulturist 
America. Were not the distances which separate us 
so great, many, a great many more would have been here 
on this occasion to meet and to greet you. 
“ American horticulurists fully appreciate your grand 
work for rose culture, in creating an interest in and love 
for the ‘ Queen of Flowers ; ’ by your writings, by your 
addresses and by your zeal you have done more than any 
other man to secure for the rose the recognition to which 
she is justly entitled, and in doing so you have been the* 
means of bringing joy to many a household where sorrow 
and discontent would otherwise have been. Through 
your wise counsel and loving adviqe, perpetual sunshine 
reigns now in many a home which otherwise would have 
been in darkness. Through your persistent efforts, 
extending over a period of many years, rose culture has 
made many strides, and now the ‘ Queen of Flowers ’ has 
won her way to popular favor everywhere and commands 
admiration from every one. 
“ I remember well the grand rose exhibitions in Eng¬ 
land, where thousands upon thousands of blooms were 
massed and staged for the gratification of an admiring 
public, and the interest taken in these exhibitions is not 
confined to any particular class, but is general ; rich and 
poor alike crowd the exhibition halls, enjoying with a dis¬ 
criminating taste the beautiful pictures placed before 
them. Around the prize stand groups of admirers gather, 
and evince by their remarks and criticisms the high stan¬ 
dard of intelligence they possess as regards the rose and 
its culture. 
“To you, sir, should be attributed in a large degree the 
credit for this happy consummation. Could we but have 
a Dean Hole in America to arouse enthusiasm, to encour¬ 
age and advise us, we too could have a Rose Society, 
which in its way, and to some degree, might accomplish 
the much desired result. But it is not my intention to 
occupy more of your time, for there are others who can 
tell you far better than I can, the degree of satisfaction 
we have in meeting you, and the deep interest we take in 
all that concerns you, especially now while you are so¬ 
journing in the states. May I ask the Very Rev. Dean 
Hole to respond ? ” 
Dean Hole responded in a happy vein, saying among 
other things in a reminiscent mood : “ I remember so 
well longing to know the great gardeners of the country, 
and the interest with which I first met such men as 
Thomas Rivers, of Sawbridgeworth, who had done so 
much for the cultivation of fruits in England, and Charles 
Turner, of Slough, another nurseryman. Then I remem¬ 
ber so well the joy that I felt in being allowed to origi¬ 
nate the first ‘ rose show ’—the first that perhaps was ever 
held in Europe or America, of roses only. I remember 
the delight with which these men responded, and how, in 
St. James Hall, I gave away 36 silver cups to the success¬ 
ful prize winners, two of them to myself. And I remember 
the old Yorkshire gardener who was with me, said : ‘ Sir, 
when tha took these two coops to thysen, Aa thowt 
tha ood st a gone straight oop to ’Ev’n.’ But I was not 
ready and so I stayed upon earth and then had another 
great delight, that which was given to me from the love 
of my heart to write a little book about roses, and the 
older I grow the more thankful I feel to Him who 
giveth all, that I have been allowed to do good to 
my fellowmen, as has my dear friend and brother, Mr. 
Ellwanger, whose partner has come some 360 miles to 
meet me to-day (we met once on the other side of the 
Atlantic). I have the happiness of thinking that it has 
