SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE. 



xlvii 



Scientific Committee, March 12, 191 8. 

 Mr. E. A. Bowles, M.A., V.M.H., F.L.S., in the Chair, and six members present. 



Curious fruit from Palestine. — Mr. W. C. Worsdell, F.L.S., said he had ascer- 

 tained at Kew that the fruit which Mr. Bowles showed at a previous meeting 

 was that of a species of Astragalus near A. macrocarpus. It was peculiar in 

 the rattling noise made by the ripe capsules. 



Mahonia with partially bipinnate leaf. — Mr. Bowles showed a leaf of Mahonia 

 Aquifolium from his garden in which one of the leaflets had developed in a 

 pinnately compound form with three leaflets. 



An early-flowering Wood Anemone. — He also showed an early flowering 

 form of Anemone nemorosa, possibly the variety quinquefolia, which always 

 opened its flowers in February. 



Potato tubers diseased. — Potato tubers showing black discolorations in the 

 flesh from which a somewhat viscous black fluid was exuding came from Cam- 

 bridge and Sunderland. This black decay is probably the result of an attack 

 by a bacterium belonging to the Bacillus melanogenes group, and possibly that 

 which produces the disease called "black-leg" which was somewhat prevalent 

 last year. 



Scientific Committee, March 26, 191 8. 



Mr. E. A. Bowles, M.A., V.M.H., in the Chair, and four members present. 



Plants from Salonika. — Mr. Bowles showed flowering specimens of a white 

 form of Romulea Bulbocodium, with buff shaded exteriors to the outer perianth 

 pieces, and Ornithogalum diver gens, both raised from bulbs sent from Salonika. 



Seed from W. Indies. — Mr. W. C. Worsdell, F.L.S., said he had compared 

 a seed brought by Mr. W. Hales, A.L.S., to the last meeting with specimens 

 in the Kew Herbarium, and found it to belong to the genus Dioclea. The plants 

 of this genus are widely spread through the tropics, and the seed floats long in 

 the sea, being frequently washed up upon the shores of tropical seas. 



Persistent fungus. — Mr. Worsdell also said that the fungus shown at the 

 last meeting from the Rev. W. Wilks was Russula nigricans. Every year this 

 fungus growing in Mr. Wilks' wood at Shirley dried up and turned black in 

 a utumn, and persisted in this condition for a long time. 



Polyembryonic acorns. — Mr. Hales showed an acorn, one of many similar 

 ones, in which three complete embryos had developed and given rise to three 

 plants on germination. Others of the same batch of seeds from Sussex produced 

 two and a few one plant. 



Potato Scab. — Some specimens of the common Potato scab were shown. 

 This disease, which is only skin deep, and does not appear to affect the weight 

 of crop adversely, is due to the attack of a bacterium called Actinomyces chro- 

 mogenus (formerly known as Oospora scabies). It is spread by infection from 

 old tubers for the most part, and this may be obviated in a great measure by 

 steeping the affected tubers before they are boxed for sprouting in a solution 

 of one part of formalin to two hundred of water. 



Scientific Committee, April 9, 191 8. 

 Mr. E. A. Bowles, M.A., V.M.H., in the Chair, and five members present. 



Branched Catkins. — Mr. J. Fraser, F.L.S., showed a branched catkin of 

 Populus serotina. He remarked that the staminate catkins of this form usually 

 drop without shedding their pollen. 



A compound catkin ( $ ) of hazel with branches at both ends was shown from 

 the Ridgmont Experimental Station, where it had been noticed by Mr. Nield. 



Oxalic acid in Sesame cake. — Dr. J. A. Voelcker, M.A., drew attention to the 

 presence of oxalic acid in some samples of Sesame cake which had recently 

 come to him for analysis ■ the amount appears to vary in different samples, 

 and to.be absent from many. It is difficult to see how the presence of oxalic 

 acid is to be accounted for, but it may be due to the use for the cake-making 

 of immature Sesame seed. 



