528 



ties, a circle of scale-like glands [?-ead folds] surrounds the orifice of 

 the tube of the corolla. These glands [read folds] are absent from 

 the Primula elatior." How the printed word came to be substituted 

 for the one which ought to have occupied its place, I cannot now di- 

 vine ; but probably the note was copied for the press, and the wrong 

 word written by mistake at the time of doing this. If a primrose 

 flower be torn into two halves, it will be seen that the corolla has a 

 thickening or puffiness just at the angle where the horizontal limb 

 passes to the vertical tube ; the inner surface of the corolla slightly 

 contracting the orifice of the tube. When looked at from above, in 

 the entire corolla, these prominences appear like imperfect scales, 

 which would make a valve to close the tube if more elongated. The 

 like peculiarity occurs both in the cowslip and primrose, although 

 more obvious in the pin-eyed forms of the primrose. In the Primula 

 elatior the limb passes more gi'adually into the tube, which is widest 

 at the orifice. On looking at numerous examples of the three species, 

 and the undistinguishable varieties of veris and vulgaris, I find that 

 in some of them this character becomes comparatively inconspicuous, 

 although clear enough in the majority. I presume that the five seg- 

 ments of circles round the tube of P. vulgaris, in ' English Botany,' 

 are designed to represent this peculiarity. In the figure of P. veris, 

 they are (correctly) made bifid or emarginate, and thus appear as ten 

 instead of five. In the figure of P. elatior, it will be seen, they are 

 not introduced. 



Hewett C. Watson. 

 Thames Ditton, April 18, 1846. 



Experiments on preserving Potatoes, conducted in the Glasnevin 

 Botanic Garden, with Remarks on Parasitical Fungi in 

 general. By David Moore, Esq.* 



In bringing forward this subject, so fully discussed already by men 

 eminent for their scientific and practical acquirements, it is not to be 

 expected that much additional information can now be afforded. But 

 when its national importance is considered, with the large share of 

 public attention which it continues to engross, and particularly as we 

 have now arrived at that period when the effects produced on the 



* Read at the evening Meeting of the Royal Dublin Society on the 14lh of April. 



