EXTRACTS OF PROCEEDINGS. 



ci 



SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE. 



R. McLachlan, Esq., F.R.S., in the Chair, and five 

 members present. 



Acacia Seyal, stipules. — Mr. Henslow showed a specimen of 

 the stipules of this Central and North African species, having 

 globular bases, about the size of large cob-nuts, terminating with 

 slender points, two inches in length. They had been perforated 

 and inhabited in all probability by ants. A discussion arose as 

 to the possibly hereditary character of the abnormal size of the 

 stipules of this and other species — e.g., of A. sphasrocephala, the 

 " Bull's horn" Thorn (as compared with the needle-like stipules 

 of some Australian species), even when cultivated in England, and 

 in the absence of ants. It is well known that the presence of 

 the ants causes an increase of the growth of the stipules, although 

 they hollow them out and consume the pith as food. It is, how- 

 ever, the opinion of Dr. Beccari and M. Treub, who have studied 

 many "ant-plants," that the comparatively large size of the 

 stipules, even before they are attacked by ants, is due to the 

 hereditary effects of the irritations set up in previous generations 

 of trees (" Malesia," ii. and "Ann. Jard. Bot. Buit." hi. p. 129). 

 An interesting description of A. sphaerocephala, &c, is given in 

 Belt's " Naturalist in Nicaragua," p. 218. 



Lilium Martagon, fasciated. — Mr. Elwes sent a large 

 fasciated stem of this species, in which this abnormality had not 

 been previously observed. It is not uncommon in other species. 

 It bore at least 100 flowers on the flattened stem, which was 

 about two inches across. 



Oak-staves, perforated. — Mr. Morris exhibited portions of 

 staves of beer-barrels, made in England in 1889, and shipped to 

 Aden in March 1890 from the Indian Store Department. Of a 

 hundred barrels nearly every one was found to leak, holes having 

 been bored into the wood by the grub of some beetle. It was 

 referred to Mr. Blandford for examination ; but in the absence of 

 all specimens of the creature, and any details in the history of 

 the case — as, e.g., whence the beetles could be derived — itissome- 

 what difficult to suggest a remedy. 



Carnations attached by Wireworm (?). — Samples of plants 

 and grubs were received from R.H.S. gardens at Chiswick. It 



