120 REPORT OF THE PLORAL COMMITTEE, 



grown and ripened in an orchard-house* It was of good size, and 

 was entirely covered with a coating of bright chinamon-coloured 

 russet. The flesh was firm, crisp, and coarse-grained, but the 

 flavour was good, and it was highly perfumed. 



Mr. Cunningham, gardener to the Bishop of London, exhi- 

 bited two punnets of Mushrooms, one the common garden Mush- 

 room, and the other a variety or species which did not seem to be 

 known to the professional gardeners present at the meeting. It 

 had a much longer and more slender stem than the common 

 Mushroom, and the cap was white and much thinner*. Mr. 

 Cunningham's object in exhibiting the two sorts was to show that, 

 however pure the stock of spawn may be, the crop may be mixed 

 by inferior, and in some instances poisonous, fungi being im- 

 ported in the loam or soil used for covering the Mushroom-beds. 



XV.— REPORT OF THE ELORAL COMMITTEE. 



Feb. 18th, 186^. 



r 



The'Rey. Joshua Dix in the Chair. 



Though somewhat early in the season, a few interesting plants 

 were exhibited on this occasion, namely: 



Phalsenopsis ScMlleriana : — from Robert Wabner, Esq,, 



Broomfield, near Chelmsford ; E. McMorland, Esq., Adelaide 

 Road, Haverstock Hill ; and Mr. W. Bull, Chelsea, to each of 

 whom a First-Class Certificate was awarded. This is a very 

 beautiful new epiphytal Orchid, introduced last year from Manilla, 

 and now exhibited for the first time in bloom. Even when not 

 in a flowering state, it is of an ornamental character, its elon- 

 gated oblong blunt-ended leaves being prettily blotched with 

 white, almost as in some of the tropical species of Lady's 

 Slipper. The flowers, which approach those of Phalmiopsis 

 amabilis in form and size, being about 3 inches across the 

 expanse of the petals, are of a very pleasing delicate rose tint. 

 The basal lobes of the lip are marked with yellow, and spotted 

 over with deep red. The truncated point of the lip i3 

 extended at the comers into two curved horns. There are 



