Cxl PEOCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



V. canina and V. sylvatica and the last two mentioned. The structure 

 of the buds is much the same in all, the petals being reduced to minute 

 green lanceolate structures, the five anthers having spoon-shaped con- 

 nectives pressed down upon the summit of the pistil. This has a short 

 curved style with truncate stigmatic orifice. 



Scientific Committee, September 24, 1901. 



Dr. M. T. Masters, F.R.8., in the Chair, and ten members present, 

 with Mr. Pockett from Australia and Mr. Crawshay, visitors. 



Maize icith Ticin Embryos. — Mr. Houston showed plants resulting 

 from two embryos growing from one grain. A similar phenomenon was 

 not uncommon in the Mistleto, Acorns, &c. 



Lily of the Valley Diseased. — Mr. Odell brought samples of the 

 foliage, which was quite brown. It was referred to Dr. Cooke for ex- 

 amination, who reported as follows : — 



" The large brown spots on the leaves, sometimes occupying the entire 

 leaf, is not a new disease, since it was known to Fries at the very 

 commencement of the nineteenth century, and the fungus producing the 

 spots was called by him Sphceria brunneola. The small blackish perithecia, 

 like pin-points, which contain the fruit of the fungus, are very scarce, and 

 often one leaf after another may be examined without finding them. The 

 primary fruit consists of very long thread-like conidia, and in this state 

 the fungus is called Septoria brunneola. More rarely still, and apparently 

 after a period of hybernation, a more perfect condition is found, in which 

 asci are produced within the perithecia, each containing eight uniseptate 

 sporidia, and in this condition the fungus is called Spluerella brunneola. It 

 is assumed, and not without some show of reason, that the Spluerella is a 

 more matured or perfect condition of the Septoria, but the relation of 

 the one form to the other has never been demonstrated. It often happens 

 in these minute species which cause the spotting of leaves that the flask- 

 shaped receptacles, called perithecia, which enclose the fruit, are filled at 

 one time with conidia or free spores and at another time with sporidia 

 enclosed in asci. The external appearance of both kinds is identical, 

 the only difl:erence being found in the fructification. In very many cases 

 the more perfect condition has never been met with, but it has come to 

 be held, as a matter of faith, that all the species of Septoria, Ascochyta, 

 and Phyllosticta which form spots on the leaves of plants are incomplete 

 fungi, and that their more highly developed stage will be found in some 

 Sphffiriaceous fungus, in which the sporidia are produced in asci." 



Galls on Oak-leaf. — Mr. Saunders showed an Oak-leaf having four 

 galls. These are formed by grubs from eggs laid by Spathegaster 

 Taschenbergi, which would produce a parthenogenetic generation of gall- 

 flies known as Dryophanta scutellaris in January or February. These 

 would lay their eggs in the buds of the Oak, and small, somewhat 

 conical galls would be found. From these the sexual generation, Spathe- 

 gaster Taschenbergi, would emerge in July. These galls are common, 

 but are usually found singly on the leaves. 



