xxviii 
BOTAL HOBTICrLirRAIi SOCIETY. 
SCIENTIEIC COMMITTEE. 
W. Wilson Saunders, Esq., E.R.S., in the Cliair. 
The Secretary stated that he had exa^mined, in conjunction with 
Mr. Broome, the two specimens of the rhizome of Caladium licolor 
brought by the Chairman to the previous Meeting, and found 
that the more solid specimen consisted of a mass of extremely 
minute starch-granules, while the softer contained the excrement 
of some mite which had also spun a quantity of threads, accompa- 
nied possibly by the flocci of some mould, which he compared 
to the curious heaps which are thrown up in a short time in 
flour-mills by the common flour-mite. 
Mr. Berkeley and Mr. Broome had examined the down on the 
eggs brought by Mr. A. Murray to the last Meeting. The hairs 
resembled exactly those which occur on the bracts of "Willow- 
catkins ; but Prof. Westwood and Mr. Stainton referred the eggs 
to Eriogaster lanestris, in accordance with the opinion broached 
by Mr. Saunders when they were first submitted to the Meeting. 
The subject, however, will be brought before the Committee at 
the next Meeting. 
Mr. Berkeley brought some Peach- and ISiectarine -leaves from 
Chiswick, which, from the centre of a withered spot, produced a 
manna-like substance in such quantities as to fall on neighbour- 
ing leaves. Pie undertook to examine it microscopically before 
the next Meeting. 
Mr. Munby brought flowers of a Violet collected by himself on 
the summit of the Atlas Mountains, which has been named V. 
Munhyana. Dr. Thomson, however, has compared it with speci- 
mens in the Herbarium at Kew, and finds that it does not differ 
materially from V. lutea. 
Dr. Masters brought a specimen of the variegated Acer negundo^ 
which had partially reverted to the original form, the variegation 
being confined to the small shoots on one side only ; also a forked 
carrot, in which the two divisions were regularly twisted round 
each other spirally. He also read a communication from Mr. 
Simpson of Broomfield Lodge, Chelmsford, on a supposed case of 
grafting between the Potato and Jerusalem Artichoke. Though 
Mr. Simpson's observations produced no conviction, it was de- 
cided that the produce should be tested at Chiswick, where spe- 
