24 



REPORT — 1859. 



former reaches the latter, when it makes one or two coils round the flax stem, 

 as shown in fig. 2, when immediately small cells begin to develope themselves 

 inside the dodder coils ; these form aerial roots which soon penetrate the flax, 

 which is now growing in size and height. It is now incorporated with the 

 circulation of the foster-parent ; its own radicle is no longer required in con- 

 nexion with the soil, and so the whole dodder plant is elevated by the flax, 

 as shown in fig. 3. 



When this attachment is completed it pushes forth new fibres, each of 

 which behaves like the parent germinal fibre Fig. 4. 



and attacks any plant growing near, so that 

 we need not wonder at clusters of dodder 

 rapidly advancing in the flax crop where it 

 is sown. Our fig. 4 represents the advance 

 in growth of a single dodder plant ve days 

 after its attachment. 



Plot D. — This is Linum perenne, before 

 reported upon ; it still keeps up its character, 

 and is a fine upright perennial flax bearing 

 one large and a second smaller crop of stems 

 annually ; however, from thus overgrowing, 

 the plants are gradually wearing out. 



Plot E is from the seed of the above; it 

 has the same appearance, but is not yet so 

 vigorous and tall in growth. Seed is sowed 

 from this to carry on experiments. 



Plot F. Rosa spinosissima (L.). 



Plot G. Rosa Doniana (Woods). 



I procured specimens of these two forms 

 of Rose from the neighbourhood of Worces- 

 ter, in December 1857, having been taken to 

 their localities by my friend Mr. Edwin Lees. 

 The habitats of both these are much alike, 

 being on the margins of the old Severn 

 Straits, and they serve to mark the former 

 marine conditions which pertained until com- 

 paratively lately along the course of the 

 Severn into the Midland Counties. 



Several specimens were forwarded to my 

 gardener and planted in a prepared border, 

 and at the present moment they present such 

 a uniformity of appearance and habit, with 

 their small leaves and abundant long straight and small spines, with a 

 creeping rhizomatous habit of growth, that convinces me they are not spe- 

 cifically distinct ; but the latter is probably a variety of R. spinosissima. 

 Hooker, however, has placed it as a var. of R. Sabini, in which he is 

 followed by Babington ; whilst Bentham has favoured the notion that the 

 true place of R. Doniana is with the Rosa villosa, an arrangement, if 

 admitted, which will go far in my opinion to reduce most of the species 

 (of authors) of this genus which we have in England to the inferior rank of 

 varieties, a conclusion which I have no doubt would be justified to a much 

 greater extent than even the " lumping " botanist is prepared for with care- 

 ful growth fiom seed, and we are hence collecting rose seeds for experiment, 

 in which we ask the aid of botanists for the rose forms of their localities. 



Plot H. Viola odorata — All the loots in this plot turned out this year to be 



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