SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE, OCTOBER 1.5. 



ccxiii 



on in alternate generations of sexual and agamic generations. To take 

 another instance, the common spangle gall, found so frequently at the back 

 of Oak leaves in large numbers, produce flies which are all females ; they 

 deposit their eggs in the male flowers of the Oak, or in the quite young 

 leaves, and small round galls are the result. Those formed on the male 

 blossoms very much resemble currants, and hanging one above the other 

 look like a small bunch of that fruit. From these galls a generation 

 escapes composed of both males and females ; the latter lay their eggs in 

 the leaves at the back. In some cases the insects in the two generations 

 are so unlike one another that it is difficult to believe that it is the same 

 species ; the males will be winged, while the female generation is apterous, 

 and very unlike the other in form and colour. The conditions of life of 

 these insects, therefore, are very curious. An insect lays an egg in a certain 

 position from which is produced, after the usual transformations, an insect 

 quite unlike its parent ; it lays an egg in an entirely difierent kind of 

 position from what its mother did, and from this in due course is deve- 

 loped an insect which is very different in appearance from its parent, but 

 exactly like its grandmother, and lays its eggs as she did, and so on 

 generation after generation. 



Fig-leaf, ascidiform. — Dr. Masters also showed from Dr. Prain a leaf 

 of some species of Ficus growing in the Botanic Garden of Calcutta in 

 which the basal part formed a hollow cone or funnel-shaped structure. . 

 It was exceptional in that it was borne on the under side, and not on the 

 upper. Every leaf of the tree was said to be so affected. 



Stropharia aeruginosa. — Mr. Bunyard sent a specimen of this fungus, 

 which he described as having almost a peacock-blue colour when fresh. 

 It was found at Boxley, Kent. It furnishes the green slabs in Tonbridge 

 ware. 



" Air Plants.'" — Dr. Plowright sent a portion of a species of Til- 

 landsia, called the " Cape Air Plant," but which is in fact a native of 

 Tropical America. Rewrites as follows : — " On August 12, this specimen 

 of Tillandsia, the so-called Air Plant of Cape Colony, was received from 

 Oape Town. To it was attached a piece of string by which it had been 

 suspended in the cabin of the gentleman who brought it over. It was 

 hung up inside a south window in my house in King's Lynn, and in due 

 course flowered. There was no trace of flower-bud w^hen it arrived, but 

 about a fortnight back a dark blue corolla appeared, springing from whp.t 

 appeared to be a pink calyx. These xerophilous plants are always inter- 

 esting, and, as a companion to the above, a stem of Sedum sj:eciosiim was 

 suspended in the same window on the same date. The changes were 

 carefully watched, and consisted first in the turning upward of the flower- 

 bud, followed by the turning of the leaves on the stem, so that they 

 pointed upwards. The lowermost leaves, i.e. those nearest the root, 

 began to wither, whilst those nearest the flower remained quite fresh. 

 At this time the base of the stem threw out numerous roots. The flower 

 w^as fully expanded by October 1, and most of the leaves, as well as the 

 roots, were shrivelled." 



British dye lolants. — A communication was also received from Dr. 

 Plowright on this subject, with numerous specimens of wool dyed from 

 various wild British plants. ■ (See p. 452.) 



