XXXviii PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



growing in a slip of ground outside the garden western boundary wall 

 many years ago. Now it is met with in, or adjacent to, the Gardens on 

 perhaps a greater number of different kinds of trees than could be seen in 

 a similar area anywhere, and probably the diversity of their forms is 

 equally exceptional. On fresh specimens the size of the fruits varies con- 

 siderably, the largest fruited plants being rendered far more striking as 

 regards their whiteness, or, as may be said, their effective translucent 

 appearance, more especially where they aggregate in clusters and become 

 distinguished by being so prolific. Mr. Burbidge records the fact of 

 Viscum growing on the following trees : — " Ostrya vulgaris, Horse- 

 Chestnut, Pavia fiava, Lime, Maple, Hawthorn, Apple, Willow, Beech, 

 and Viburnum sp., but very weakly on the last two. Outside the Gardens 

 it grows on two Poplars." 



Cattlcya, Monstrous. — Mr. Coleman exhibited a form of Cattleya, 

 which Dr. Masters undertook to examine. 



Leopard Moth. — Mr. Gordon referred to the damage done by the 

 caterpillars of this moth in boring up branches of the Spanish Chestnut, 

 Apple trees, &c. He asked for information as to how long the caterpillar 

 lived. Mr. McLachlan observed that the caterpillar really bored upwards 

 through the pith, and not downwards, as is usually supposed. The only 

 remedy was to insert a wire and kill it by probing. The fumes of cyanide 

 of potassium was another remedy, if they could efltectually reach the 

 caterpillar. As to the duration, two seasons were required to complete 

 the transformation, while the goat-moth caterpillars took three years. 



Apple, Rotten. — Mr. Houston exhibited a remarkable case of decay, 

 which had begun in the centre and spread uniformly outwards, so that 

 the sound part came away like a hollow shell, leaving a perfectly spherical 

 decayed central mass. There was no apparent fungus or other cause to 

 account for it. 



Crinum sp. — Mr. Worsley exhibited some stolons of a species of 

 Crinum known as C. jamaicense. It is found in Jamaica, on the N.E. 

 coast, near the sea, exposed to the N.E. trade winds. It is an unrecorded 

 species, and since the peculiar method of propagation by fleshy stolons, 

 one joint of which -swells into the bulb, is characteristic of North 

 America, it was Mr. Worsley's opinion that it was derived from that 

 country, by ocean currents floating the seeds, or perhaps bulbs, to the 

 shore of Jamaica. 



Specimens from Trinity College Gardens, Dublin. — The following 

 specimens were received from Mr. Burbidge, V.M.H., with the following 

 remarks : — " 1. Herewith I send two or three sheets of Birch-bark paper, 

 from Betula tttilis, D. Don (= /3 Bhjopattra, Wall). It is written that 

 paper was first invented and made by the Chinese ; but I suppose the 

 Birch trees of both East and West {vide Longfellow's poem of 

 ' Hiawatha '), to say nothing of the wasps, made paper long before even 

 the Chinese ! Note how sensitive it is to heat and moisture. It is 

 difficult to prevent its becoming a natural scroll. Was it the origin of 

 all scrolls of bark, and afterwards of animal skins, used as a writing 

 surface or paper ? We have three trees, the largest 20 feet high, and we 

 value them very highly, not only for their silver-stemmed beauty, 

 especially during winter, but especially because they were born and raised 



