Ixxii 
llOYAL UORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
Mr. Eeeves brought part of a stem of a Passion-flower, the 
central portion of which was dead. This sometimes happens from 
the stem resting on an iron rod, or against some other good con- 
ductor of heat, in consequence of which the tissues of the part are 
injured and ultimately perish. 
Mr. Manby brought corms of an Oxalis, from some of which 
large fleshy roots had been produced resembling those of some 
Crocuses which were on a former occasion before the Committee. 
The Meeting then adjourned. 
GENERAL MEETING. 
James Bateman, Esq., F.E.S., in the Chair. 
The Chairman called upon the Members in general for dona- 
tions of books to the Library, and invited M. de Cannart d'Hamale, 
who was on the platform, to exert his influence in this direction 
in Belgium. 
Mr. Wilson Saunders said that he had lately employed collec- 
tors in Peru and Chili, and had obtained, from the latter especi- 
ally, many novelties. 
Mr. Berkeley said that he was wrong in saying that the shoots 
of Ornithogalum nutans are sold as a substitute for Asparagus at 
Bath. O. pyrenaicum is the plant, according to Mr. Ellacombe, 
which is so employed. 
The subjects of interest which had been brought before the 
Scientific Committee were noticed, and Mr. Bateman read the 
following note respecting Primula japonica, Asa Gray, from 
Mr. Eortune : — 
" In the early days of May 1861, just ten years ago, when I was so- 
journing in an old temple near Yeddo, the capital of Japan, a native florist 
brought to my door a basketful of this beautiful Primrose in full bloom. 
Its flowers, of a rich magenta colour, were arranged in tiers, one above 
another, on a spike nearly two feet in height, and its leaves were .not unlike 
our own English Cowslip. It was beyond all question the most beautiful 
of the genus to which it belongs ; and I crowned it at once as the * Queen 
of Primroses.' I need scarcely say that I bought all the basketful and 
added it to my already rich collections of Japanese plants. Unfortunately, 
however, I did not succeed at that time in getting the plants home alive ; 
and the seeds which I had gathered failed to vegetate on their arrival in 
England. Since that time I have made many efforts to get home living 
