16 
ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
inclined to reject the whole narrative as a hoax, thinks that it is 
vouched for by testimony too respectable not to require some 
explanation. 
Eor my own part, having carefully read the original paper, I 
do not believe, for reasons I have elsewhere stated,* that blue or 
violet light had anything to do with the extraordinary growth of 
the Yines, supposing that really to have taken place as described. 
I am slow, indeed, to comprehend how such a physical condition 
as exposure to blue light can be equally beneficial to the growth 
of Yines, the rearing of poultry, and the invigoration of the 
constitution of invalids. The erroneousness of the facts argued 
from, the absence of all knowledge of modern publications in 
vegetable physiology, and the wildly crotchety theories, such as 
electricity having produced the giant trees of California, disincline 
me, I must confess, to attach any serious weight to either General 
Pleasonton's views or his results. 
I must not occupy your time with longer remarks. I will only, 
in conclusion, call your attention to the useful summary of the 
history of the Phylloxera vastatrix, given by the President of the 
Linnean Society in his annual address, and printed in ''iN'ature'' 
for June 13 last, and also to the completion by Decaisne, vrith 
the 10th volume of the Jardin Fruitier du Museum," of the 
history of cultivated Pears. 
lY. The Eelative Influence of Parentage in Flowering Plants. 
By J. Denny, M.D. 
[Read at the Birmingham. Congress, June 26, 1872.] 
One of the chief objects of my paper is to promote the study of a 
subject full of scientific interest, and of the greatest importance to 
the practical horticulturist, but which, for the want of accumula- 
tion of data derived from accurate experiments, at the present is 
involved in much obscurity. 
If we could, by the observation of results acquired through the 
medium of a series of carefully-performed experiments in artificial 
fertilisation, obtain any reliable evidence indicative of the relative 
influence the male (or pollen) and the female (or seed) parents bear 
* Gard. Chron. 1872, p. 396. 
