1 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Scientific Committee, July 16, 1918 



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



Abundance of Poppies. — Dr. J. A. Voelcker, M.A., drew attention to the 

 remarkable abundance of the common field Poppy in Wheat fields this season, 

 and especially upon a plot in the Woburn Experimental Farm where Wheat 

 following Tares fed off with sheep was a poor plant, while Poppies were abundant ; 

 on the adjoining plot where the treatment was the same except that Mustard 

 had been fed off instead of Tares, the Wheat was a good crop and Poppies prac- 

 tically absent. 



Seakale attacked by Gall Weevil. — Mr. J. Fraser, F.L.S., showed a specimen 

 of Seakale stem with a chain of galls several inches long, produced by the gall 

 weevil (Ceutorrhynchus sp.). These galls are usually found only at the ground 

 level. 



Doubling of Various Flowers, etc. — Col. H. E. Rawson exhibited further 

 specimens of Poppy flowers showing colour and form changes which had arisen 

 in his garden, and which he attributed to exposure to certain light rays. He 

 called attention to the change of stamens into petals in the doubling of the 

 Poppy, and to the presence of inverted spurs in double Aquilegias and Tro- 

 paeolums from his garden. 



Reversion in Cauliflower. — Mr. W. C. Worsdell, F.L.S., showed a developing 

 inflorescence of Cauliflower in which the group was composed, not as is usual 

 of a mass of hypertrophied flower-stems, but of thousands of flower-buds with 

 a few leafy bracts among them. 



Disappearance of the Bee Orchis. — Mr. H. J. Elwes, F.R.S., remarked upon 

 the scarcity of information regarding the life histories of British Orchids, and 

 gave an instance of the remarkable appearance of flowering plants of Bee Orchids 

 last year in a wood cleared four years before, whereas this season none is to be 

 found. 



Proliferation in Echeveria setosa. — Mr. W. E. Ledger showed a plant of 

 Echeveria setosa from his garden in which the flowering axis in one case bore a 

 rosette of leaves at its tip without flowers, while in another a flowering shoot 

 sprang from just beneath the rosette. 



Curled Mustard. — Mr. A. Ireland sent a plant of the Chinese Curled Mustard, 

 which he said he had found to make an excellent salad, and very good food for 

 rabbits. The plant he had found as a weed in waste places : it is easily raised 

 from seed sown in April. 



Tall Antirrhinum. — From Mrs. Wilson, of Merstham, Surrey, came an account 

 of an Antirrhinum which had attained the height of 64 inches. This was 

 apparently a further instance of the appearance of a giant race of these plants, 

 such as has previously been brought before the Committee, and would doubtless 

 breed true if self -fertilized. 



Spiral torsion in Valerian, etc. — Mr. E. M. Holmes, F.L.S., sent a remarkable 

 specimen of Valeriana officinalis with fasciated and spirally twisted stem, about 

 an inch in breadth. He also sent a specimen of the inflorescence of Angelica 

 sylvatica with numerous leafy bracts among the flowers. 



Cultivated Spurrey. — Some discussion took place regarding the Spurrey 

 grown on the Continent for feeding sheep. It is sometimes distinguished by 

 agriculturists from Spergula arvensis under the name of 5. maxima, but is usually 

 regarded as a form, scarcely meriting a varietal name, of that species. 



Scientific Committee, July 30, 1918. 



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



Spiral torsion in Nettle. — Mr. Bowles showed a case of spiral torsion in the 

 stem of the common nettle (Urtica dioica), from Sir Hugh Beevor's garden at 

 Hargham. 



The ' Thorn' Apple. — Mr. W. C. Worsdell, F.L.S., showed further examples 

 of the so-called Thorn Apple from Dorsetshire, demonstrating the change of 

 both stamens and petals into fleshy structures in the formation of the fruits, 

 which externally show only the edges of these structures. The tree constantly 

 produces these curious malformed fruits. 



Fasciated Vegetable Marrow. — Mr. J. W. Odell showed an example of fasci- 

 ation in Vegetable Marrow in which three flowers took part. They were all 

 staminate. 



