136 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
a great deal of attention to Primroses, and endeavoured to find 
some explanation of what are called the " pin-eyed " and " thrmn- 
eyed " forms — otherwise, flowers possessing either long styles 
and short stamens, or short styles and long stamens. By 
numerous experiments he arrived at the conclusion that short- 
styled flowers, if fertilised with pollen from long-styled forms, 
i.e. forms with short stamens, or vice versa, produced the most 
numerous offspring. These he called " legitimate " unions, 
while the term illegitimate " union was applied to flowers in 
which the long styles received pollen from sJiort stamens, or 
short styles from long stamens. 
Frimula scotica is an exception to the Primulas in general 
owing to the fact that it is neither " pin-eyed " nor " thrum-eyed," 
and succeeds in fertilising itself easily. 
A similar condition often arises under cultivation with dimor- 
phic Primulas, when the stamens and style become of the same 
length, as may be seen sometimes in Auriculas and the Chinese 
Primrose. 
Some of Messrs. John Laing & Son's new single and double 
Begonias were next called attention to. Professor Henslow 
pointed out that between 18G4 and 1867 three species of Begonia 
— B. boliviensis (scarlet), B. VeitcJiii (rose-red), B. Pearcci 
(yellow) — were introduced to cultivation, but they were totally 
different in aspect from the progeny which had been produced by 
crossing and intercrossing these species. 
Prof. Henslow alluded to the great assistance which a white- 
flowering plant rendered to the florist, for as soon as such had 
appeared it is shown that the further generations showed much 
variation in colour when this is used as one of the parents. 
Thus, if an orange-coloured flower be crossed with white, a dis- 
sociation of the red and yellow might follow, pure red and pure 
yellow-coloured flowers resulting. This phenomenon had 
occurred with Abutilons and E. I. Rhododendrons, as well as 
with Begonias. A point he wished to emphasise was the difli- 
culty that would bo experienced in tracing the present-day hybrids 
of many plants to their original forms where authentic informa- 
tion was missing. In this connection the lecturer referred to the 
controversy which was being carried on in the columns of Naiitrc 
in regard to the florists' Cineraria. Mr. Dyer maintained that 
Cineraria crueniawfLB thesole source whence the florists' Cinerarias 
