clxii 



ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The Chairman stated that dead bodies of a fly are sometimes 

 imprisoned in the flowers of Lolium perenne, as if in consequence 

 of some deleterious influence. 



Mr. A. W. Bennett remarked that it is impossible to pre- 

 dicate of any given family or genus whether its members are 

 self- or crop-fertilized. Many winter-flowering plants are self- 

 fertilized, as, for example, Poa annua. 



Attention was then drawn to the necessity of making some 

 new arrangements at Chiswick for meteorological observations, 

 towards which Mr. Glaisher kindly offered his assistance. He 

 recommended observations of temperature to be made at several 

 depths, besides 1 foot and 2 feet, and remarked that at 25 feet 

 the temperature was lowest in July, and highest in January. 

 Even though there might be some defect in the old arrange- 

 ments, such a long series of observations is very valuable. 



GENERAL MEETING. 



W. Wilson Saunders, Esq., F.R.S., in the Chair. 



The awards were announced by the Rev. J. Dix, and Mr. G. 

 F. Wilson. 



Mr. Berkeley stated that after careful examination, as far as 

 could be ascertained without the assistance of cones, he be- 

 lieved that the Abies from Japan, exhibited by Mr. Standish, is a 

 form of Abies obovata, Ledebour, a species with a wide geo- 

 graphical range. He had failed in obtaining fruiting specimens 

 of the sharp-leaved form of Picea pinsapo, though there were 

 trees in the country full 25 feet in height. There were other 

 instances, however, in which the sterile tree had very different 

 leaves from the fertile, the most remarkable instance, perhaps, 

 being that of Picea fir ma, Sieb. and Zucc, of which P. bifida 

 is the sterile form. A report was then made of the trials at 

 Chiswick of different varieties of Maize, the best of which proved 

 to be Bates's Early Bronze, which seemed to be identical with 

 the variety so successfully cultivated by Mr. Dancer. Some 

 drawings of fruits from Mauritius, brought by Mr. Eernyhough, 

 of Belsize Park, Hampstead, were commented on by Mr. Bate- 

 man, who called especial attention to a charming Polycychnis 

 from the Society's Collection, and for which he proposed the 

 name of P. Reichenbachiana. 



