PURPLE BROMPTON STOCK. 



LXXIII.— PURPLE BROMPTON STOCK. 



" Having never been able to ascertain the existence of a true 

 Purple Brompton, or large biennial single-stemmed stock, I have 

 attempted to originate one, and I send you the result for exami- 

 nation. Its lineage is as follows:— A good purple branching 

 or Queen Stock was crossed bj the so-called Scarlet Brompton 

 or Giant — the pollen from the seedling was then used to fertilise 

 a Scarlet Brompton. The produce of this cross was again used 

 as the male parent in a new cross with the Scarlet. The blood 

 was now changed, and the pollen of the last-mentioned seedliug 

 was used to fertilise a red single-stemmed stock of great beauty 

 which I procured some years ago from Mons. Vilmorin, under the 

 name of ' Prefet de Caen.' The present plant has almost 

 exactly the peculiar habit of the ' Prefet ' saving the colour ; and 

 it is a most remarkable circumstance that through the whole of 

 these generations the purple colour has entirely predominated, to 

 the almost extinction of the red, and this always occurred 

 whether the purple or the red sort was used as the seed-bearing 



" Certain phenomena extremely interesting to the physiologist 

 were observed during my experiments with the Matthioli, an 

 account of which, when more fully investigated, I shall have much 

 pleasure in communicating to the Society. 



"B. H." 



The stock which accompanied this memorandum was charming. 



LXXIV.— GENERAL MEETING, May 3L 



An Ordinary Meeting of the Society was held on Friday, 

 May 31st, in the Council Room at the Gardens, South Kensing- 

 ton, C. Wentworth Djlke, Esq., V.P., in the Chair, wheu 

 the following candidates were balloted for and elected Fellows, 



