July  20,  1899. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
51 
THE  BANQUET. 
Following  the  example  set  at  the  international  horticultural 
gatherings  upon  the  Continent,  a  grand  banquet  was  held  at  the  Hotel 
Metropole  on  the  evening  of  Wednesday,  the  12th  inst.,  as  a  wind-up 
to  the  business  of  the  Conference.  Dinner  was  laid  for  7  p.m.  in  the 
Whitehall  Rooms,  but  previously  Sir  Trevor  and  Lady  Lawrence 
received  the  guests  and  visitors  in  an  adjoining  room.  The  famous 
Whitehall  Rooms  have  seen  many  festive  gatherings,  but  surely  never 
one  at  which  more  artistically  decorated  tables  were  to  be  seen.  Not 
only  were  the  flowers  and  plants  good  in  themselves,  but  the  way  in 
which  they  were  arranged  was  really  tasteful. 
The  presidential  chair  was  set  about  half  way  down  a  commodious 
table  running  the  length  of  the  huge  hall,  and  from  it  there  branched 
other  tables  at  right  angles.  Sir  Trevor  Lawrence,  in  his  official 
capacity  of  Chairman  of  the  Society,  presided,  with  Lord  Justice  Lindley 
(the  Master  of  the  Rolls)  on  his  left  hand,  and  his  Excellency,  the 
Belgian  Minister  of  Agriculture,  Baron  Wbcntnall,  on  his  right.  The 
room  was  well  filled,  and  the  gathering  was  not  only  representative  of 
the  elite  of  British  horticulture,  but  was  graced  by  delegates  from  many 
friendly  nations.  The  United  States  sent  Mr.  H.  J.  Webber,  Mr. 
J  airchild,  and  Professor  Swingle  :  Germany  sent  Herr  Carl  Schmidt 
and  Herr  Wilhelm  Pfitzer;  M.  Mark  Micheli  represented  Switzerland; 
the  honour  of  the  Netherlands  was  well  sustained  by  Professor  Hugo  de 
Vries,  Baron  Goldschtein,  and  Messrs.  Krelage,  junr._.  and  Simon  de 
Graaf,  and  France  sent  Mous.  Henri  de  Vdmorin  and  Mons.  de  la 
Devansaye. 
Sir  Michael  Foster,  Herr  Ernst  Denary,  Mr.  Joseph  Chamberlain, 
and  Mr.  Walter  Long,  all  of  whom  had  intended  to  be  present,  were 
notable  absentees. 
British  horticulturists  and  scientists  were  a  strong  muster.  Cam¬ 
bridge  sent  one  of  her  worthiest  sons  in  the  person  of  Mr.  W.  Bateson, 
and  Messrs.  N.  N.  Sherwond,  Harry  J.  Veitch,  Jas.  H.  Veitch,  R. 
Sydenham,  H.  Turner,  F.  Moore.  F.  W.  Burbi’dge,  Geo.  Paul,  G.  L. 
Paul,  de  Barri  Crawshay,  T.  B.  Haywood,  Jas.  Douglas,  R.  A.  Rolfe, 
C.  C.  Hurst,  Chas.  E.  Shea,  Geo.  Bunvard,  P.  Kay,  J.  W.  Barr,  P.  R. 
Barr,  J.  G.  Barr,  P.  Crowley,  J.  Heal,  J.  Seden,  Jas.  Hudson,  F.  Sander, 
R.  P.  Iver,  S.  T.  Wright,  W.  Roupeli,  and  others  were  all  there.  The  Rev. 
W.  Wilks  and  the  Rev.  Geo.  Engleheart,  keen  hybridists  both,  upheld 
the  honour  of  the  clerical  contingent.  The  presence  of  ladies,  too, 
added  much  to  the  sociability  of  the  evening.  Lady  Lawrence,  Mrs. 
Harrv  J.  Veitch,  Mrs.  J.  H.  Veitch,  and  Miss  Douglas  being  visible. 
The  toast  list  was  not  a  long  one,  but  the  subjects  were  such  that 
fairly  lengthy  speeches  were  needed  to  do  justice  to  them.  In  giving 
the  customary  loyal  toasts  of  “  The  Queen,  the  Prince  and  Princess  of 
Wales  and  the  remainder  of  our  Royal  Family,”  Sir  Tremor  alluded 
very  appropriately  to  the  fact  that  our  August  Lady  was  patroness  of 
the  Societv,  and  that  the  Prince  Consort  was  for  some  time  before  his 
death  its  President. 
In  the  absence  of  Sir  Michael  Foster  the  task  of  proposing  the  toast 
of  “  Horticulture  ”  devolved  upon  the  Rev.  Geo.  Henslow,  who  in  a 
few  minutes  managed  to  run  through  the  ages  from  that  far-away 
time  when  a  certain  king  stole  a  poor  man’s  garden  and  killed  its 
owner,  in  order  to  make  a  garden  of  herbs,  right  down  to  the  prosaic 
nineteenth  century,  with  its  Royal  Horticultural  Societv  and  its 
Hybrid  Conference.  The  ancient  Romans  cultivated  few  flowers,  for 
the  Mediterranean  region  was  so  full  of  beautiful  wildlings  that  the 
art  of  the  cultivator  was  not  wanted.  Beans  and  Lettuces  were 
grown,  and  grown  well,  and  the  Romans  were  very  proud  of  them,  but 
they  did  not  hybridise  the  few  plants  they  cultivated.  There  was 
nothing  to  be  said  about  the  Middle  Ages,  for  it  was  not  until  the 
sixteenth  century  that  flowers  began  to  be  cultivated,  and  not  until 
the  eighteenth  century  that  Britishers  took  much  notice  of  their 
gardens.  From  1810  to  1824  a  lot  of  new  plants  were  brought  into 
the  country,  and  the  introduction  of  the  Chrysanthemum  in  1845  by 
Fortune  marked  an  important  epoch  in  the  historv  of  plant  breeding. 
He  coupled  with  the  toast  tire  ri-amps  of  Mr.  H.  J.  Webber,  Prof. 
Hugo  de  Vries,  and  Mons.  Henri  de  Vilmorin,  all  of  whom  responded 
in  the  order  named. 
Mr.  Webber  avowed  his  intense  pleasure  at  being  able  to  bring 
from  across  the  seas  not  only  the  friendly  greeting  of  kinsmen,  but 
also  a  special  greeting  from  the  States  Secretary  of  Agriculture. 
Mr.  Webber  expressed  a  confident  hope  that  the  Conference  would 
lead  to  great  results.  Hitherto  the  value  of  the  work  accomplished  by 
the  hybridist  had  been  but  imperfectly  known,  and  he  alluded  to  the 
feeling  that  had  found  expression  in  the  afternoon’s  proceedings  that 
the  raiser  of  new  plants  should  have  something  more  remunerative 
than  mere  honour  to  reward  his  labours.  The  man  who  in  any  way 
lightened  the  struggle  for  existence,  and  put  bread  into  the  mouths  of 
starving  people  by  improving  crops,  was  far  more  deserving  of  honour 
than  the  man  who  carried  the  curse  of  war  into  his  neighbour’s  fields. 
Science  was  an  international  property,  and  it  was  their  duty  to 
popularise  scientific  and  practical  horticulture  by  every  means  in  their 
power.  He  looked  forward  to  a  time  in  the  near  future  when  such  a 
movement  would  meet  with  its  own  reward. 
Professor  Hugo  de  Vries  said  that  the  feature  of  the  Conference 
that  had  made  most  impression  upon  him  had  been  the  manifest  desire 
to  bring  all  men  of  science  together,  for  the  first  paper  of  the  Con¬ 
ference  had  been  contributed  by  a  zoologist.  The  Professor  “  raised 
his  glass  ”  to  the  continuity  of  the  scientific  work  thus  begun. 
Monsieur  de  Vilmorin,  alter  acknowledging  the  compliment  that 
had  been  paid  to  France  and  himself  by  coupling  his  name  with  the 
toast,  averred  in  emphatic  terms  his  profound  belief  that  too  much, 
could  not  be  said  about  the  improvements  that  enlightened  horticulture 
had  worked.  Horticulture  was  the  highest  and  most  perfect  form  of 
agriculture,  and  yet  both  were  now  working  under  difficulties.  It  was 
an  open  problem  whether  it  was  better  to  use  coals  to  drive  steamers 
that  brought  the  produce  of  sunnier  climes  to  our  doors  or  to  use  that 
coal  for  heating  purposes  to  produce  early  crops  at  home.  Plants  were 
our  tools,  and  in  striving  to  improve  the  “  plants”  horticulture  was  ouly 
trying  to  do  what  every  other  trade  and  profession  was  attempting. 
The  toast  of  “  The  Hybridists  ”  was  placed  in  the  hands  of  Mr. 
Bateson,  who,  after  humorously  declaring  that  the  hybridist  who  brok« 
the  laws  of  Nature  was  like  the  man  who  broke  the  laws  of  the  land, 
in  that  he  often  did  not  know  what  the  lawTs  were  until  he  broke  them, 
went  on  to  urge  the  necessity  there  was  for  the  establishment  of  some 
permanent  body  under  State  control  to  carry  on  the  work  of  investi¬ 
gation  regularly  and  steadily.  Much  could  be  done  by  private  enter¬ 
prise,  however,  and  at  least  he  felt  sure  that  the  Royal  Horticultural 
Society’s  experiment  in  hybridisation  would  not  be  sterile,  but  would 
produce  fruit  that  would  be  awarded  an  F.C.C. 
Professor  Swingle,  with  whose  name  the  toast  was  associated, 
brought  forth  a  storm  of  cheers  by  his  allusion  to  the  “  sacred  soil 
of  England.”  The  professor  expressed  his  confidence  in  the  future 
that  was  in  store  for  horticulture  as  an  art. 
The  toast  of  the  evening,  “  The  Royal  Horticultural  Society,”  came 
from  the  lips  of  Lord  Justice  Lindley.  It  might  be,  he  said,  a  matter 
of  some  speculation  and  surprise  to  many  that  an  old  lawyer  like 
himself  should  have  been  entrusted  with  this  toast,  but  he  was  the 
proud  bearer  of  an  honoured  name,  the  name  of  a  man  who  for  thirty- 
five  years  was  the  life  and  soul  of  the  Society.  He  himself  could 
remember  the  time  when  the  great  Chiswick  fetes  were  an  attraction 
for  all  the  rank  and  fashion  of  the  country,  when  the  Society’s  exertions 
took  the  form  of  sending  out  explorers  and  collectors  to  foreign  lands. 
He  could  well  remembjr  the  fiery  Douglas  who  introduced  the  Douglas 
Fir,  and  who  met  his  death  by  being  gored  by  a  buffalo.  Hartley  the 
cool  and  Fortune  the  Scotsman,  who  added  to  his  high  cheek-bones  an 
extensive  knowledge  of  Chinese  and  consummate  dexterity  with  chop¬ 
sticks.  were  both  known  to  him.  Those  were  the  days  when  money 
flowed  in.  Then  came  a  period  of  decadence,  possibly  owing  to  com¬ 
petition.  They  went  to  South  Kensington,  and  there  they  could 
hardly  pay  their  way.  Now  once  more  they  were  basking  in  a  spell 
of  prosperity.  The  Society  appealed  more  to  those  of  scientific 
instincts  than  to  the  merely  wealthy,  and  thanks  to  the  excellence  of 
the  organisation,  the  lowering  of  the  scale  of  subscriptions,  and  the 
energies  of  the  executive,  the  later  policy  had  been  crowned  with 
success.  The  latest  development  seemed  to  foreshadow  “a  treat  for 
the  lawyers,”  seeing  that  the  possibility  of  instituting  patent  rights  for 
new  plants  had  been  discussed. 
Sir  Trevor  Lawrence,  who,  by  virtue  of  his  position,  is  intimately 
connected  with  all  the  innermost  workings  of  the  Society,  responded 
at  some  length.  Passing  allusion  was  made  to  the  work  of  Thomas 
Andrew  Knight  and  Banks,  and  the  burden  of  obligation  to  the 
Society  under  which  Ceylon  and  India  lay,  seeing  that  it  was  directly 
owing  to  Robert  Fortune  that  the  centre  of  the  tea  trade  was  shiftect 
to  those  countries  from  China.  Again,  to  quote  from  Andrew  Murray’s 
book,  “nowhere  could  a  day’s  drive  be  taken  in  our  own  country  where 
the  landscape  would  not  be  found  to  have  been  beautified  by  the  results 
of  the  Society’s  work.”  Sir  Trevor  reminded  his  audience  that  there 
was  no  society  that  depends  upon  the  fickle  tastes  of  fashion  but  would 
sooner  or  later  come  to  grief.  The  policy  of  the  executive  of  late  years 
had  been  “to  stick  to  horticulture,”  and  the  results  had  amply  justified 
this  policy. 
Two  things  were  wanted  badly — first,  a  horticultural  hall  in  Londop; 
and  second,  a  new  garden,  for  Chiswick  had  become  too  small  and  too 
near  London. 
In  the  absence  of  Sir  John  Llewelyn,  Mr.  C.  E.  Shea  gave  “  Ihe 
Visitors.”  He  had  been  much  impressed  that  afternoon,  he  said,  over 
the  almost  fierce  utilitarianism  of  the  United  States.  They  had  a 
frost  which  spoiled  their  Oranges,  and  they  straightway  set  to  work  to 
evolve  a  variety  that  the  frost  could  not  spoil.  Mr.  Shea  waxed 
humorous  over  the  way  Lemons  were  cut  in  half,  thrown  into  barrels, 
covered  with  harbour  sludge,  and  sent  from  Messina  to  the  Lnited 
States  to  make  various  drinks  with.  He  did  not  wonder  that  the 
States  were  now  trying  to  grow  their  own  Leptons. 
The  Belgian  Minister,  his  Excellency  Baron  M  hentnall  replied,  and 
expressed  a  wish  that  his  thanks  could  only  be  as  eloquent  as  they 
were  sincere.  He  felt  thoroughly  at  home  on  British  soil,  and  the 
quality  of  British  hospitality  was  known  the  world  over< 
