779 



in every respect were grown under the various bell-glasses. Certain 

 differences were described, both in the rootlets and the leaves, which 

 might fairly be attributed to the character of the light. The time of 

 flowering, and the flowers themselves, were not affected by it ; and 

 the greatest growth (estimated quantitatively in each instance) took 

 place in the plant exposed to all the rays of the solar spectrum ; the 

 next greatest was under the blue glass. Wheat was also grown in a 

 similar manner, the method of arrangement of apparatus being minutely 

 detailed, and the character of the corn-plants which appeared under 

 the various glasses. Those under the yellow were the most sturdy in 

 their growth ; those under the blue the least healthy ; whilst some 

 grown under a nearly darkened shade grew quickly nine inches long, 

 put forth no secondary leaves, and died in a month. Mallows were 

 grown in a similar manner. The detailed observations were to much 

 the same purport as in the preceding instance. As it had been for- 

 merly observed by the author and his brother, that plants kept in an 

 unchanged atmosphere appear to enter into a sort of lethargic condi- 

 tion, experiments were instituted for the purpose of ascertaining whe- 

 ther the alteration in light produced by coloured media made any 

 marked variation in this matter. The pansy and the Poa annua were 

 the plants selected ; and comparative experiments were made with a 

 darkened shade, and with no covering at all. The results were various, 

 but scarcely conclusive, unless in reference to the fact that plants 

 survive much longer for being in unchanged air. The colourless and 

 yellow media appeared most favourable to the healthiness of the plants. 

 As experiments on growing plants must stretch over a considerable 

 time, the author's obsei-vations were not put forth as foundations for 

 any generalization, but just as samples of his preliminary attempts. 



Trifolium repens. 



The Rev. Prof. W. Hincks described an anomaly of the Trifolium 

 repens (white clover), in which the pedicels of the flowers were very 

 much elongated, and the petals and pistil converted into leaves. 



On the Transmutation of JEgilops into Triticutn, hy Major Munro. 



The author laid on the table a series of specimens which seemed to 

 indicate a gradual transition from plants recognized by botanists as 

 belonging to the genus iEgilops into those having the characters of 

 the genus Triticum. He suggested that, as we had no wild represen- 

 tative of the Triticum hyperboreum which yields wheat, it might have 

 been derived from a species of ^gilops. 



