SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE, MARCH 12. 



XXXVll 



" All these hybrids agree in possessing a much more free-branching 

 habit, with greater fulness of growth than any others that I know. The 

 more erect ones send out more numerous lateral branches, and do not 

 become ' leggy,' while the spreading ones produce numerous branches 

 that fill up the centre of the plant, and keep it from looking straggling. 

 The summer flowers are at least half as large again as the winter ones 

 that I send. The plants were raised from seed in the autumn of 1899, 

 kept through the winter in a cold orangery, where they made no progress 

 to speak of, and were planted out at the end of May last year. In the 

 autumn they were potted ofl", and have been kept in a greenhouse, far too 

 crowded for them to do well. I may note that among the Abutilon hybrids 

 that we have, the roots are almost always swollen with galls, produced by 

 the nematode Heterochra raclicicola, with which the mould Thielavia 

 Hartogi (Butler) co-operates. These galls formed the subject of an 

 interesting research by Dr. Butler, now cryptogamist to the Indian 

 Government, and a preliminary abstract of it was published in the British 

 Association Report for 1900 (Dover). I have found the addition of soot 

 to the soil useful in checking this disease, though I am not sure that it 

 stops it. 



"I take the opportunity to show an inflorescence of a hybrid Saraca 

 (indica x tetrandra), raised by the late Wm. Crawford at Lakelands, 

 Cork, and acquired by gift from his executors when the collection was 

 broken up at his death. These hybrids, of which we have five distinct 

 forms, are singularly ornamental shrubs for the stove, where they flower 

 for nearly three months, beginning in February." 



Carnation leaves decayed. — Mr. W. B. Vernon, of Oswestry, sent some 

 leaves, decayed at the tips, of a pink Malmaison, observing that the brown- 

 ing of the apex of the leaves occurs almost every year about this time. 

 They were sent to Dr. W. G. Smith for examination and report. 



Latc-floicering Chrysanthenmms. — Mr. Holmes sent a blossom of 

 "Lady Canning," with the following observation : — "I have never seen a 

 flower so late as this before. It was in a pot in a cold house, and has 

 been in blossom since the week before Christmas. I also send a fasciated 

 stem of Daphne Cneorum.'" 



Snowdrops, Diseased. — Dr. W. G. Smith sent the following report 

 upon specimens submitted to him : — "I regard the Snowdi'ops sent from 

 last meeting of the Scientific Committee as attacked by the Botrytis 

 stage of the fungus Sclerotinia galanthi. This was described and figured 

 by Mr. Worthington G. Smith in 1889 ; Mr. George Massee also describes 

 it in the Kcw Bulletin, No. 121:, and in his latest text-book of plant 

 diseases. I found the Botrytis form of spore working its way up the 

 green parts of plants sent ; now these are a shapeless mass with the 

 Sclerotium stage present in numbers. As to remedy, I can suggest nothing 

 l)etter than to lift the bulbs after flowering, and before planting them 

 again in the autumn to shake them well in a bag with flowers of sulphur." 



llistlcto in the Oxford Botanic Gardens. — Inquiries having been made 

 as to the origin of the numerous plants and varieties of Visciim album now 

 on various trees in these Gardens, the following observations have been 

 received from Mr. T. E. Jefteries, Oxford : — " I understood from the late 

 Mr. W. H. Baxter that his father established the plant on Apple trees 



