SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE, JANUARY 28. 



xxiii 



many persons to overlook the much more important fact that the only 

 real function of the food in the matter is to make the plant show what it 

 already can do, and not to impress upon it a new character. It seems not 

 unlikely that much of the improvement in our ordinary vegetables, con- 

 sequent on intensive cultivation, may primarily be attributed to similar 

 causes. 



In the fasciated stem of the specimen shown the pith has undergone 

 a considerable relative increase, and constitutes about three quarters of 

 the cross -sectional area of the stem in the upper banded portion. It 

 might have been expected that the flattened expansion would have 

 assumed the histological character proper to the leaf, that is to say, the 

 green chlorophyll-containing cells might have shown some modification in 

 the direction of producing palisade parenchyma. Such is, however, not 

 the case, and the cortex in every respect, save in its contour, resembles 

 that of the normal young branch, and, like the latter, it forms a layer of 

 cork from its peripheral cells. 



Colour and Scent of Floivers. — Mr. Douglas, V.M.H., raised the 

 question as to whether there was any relation between the colour and 

 scent of flowers, remarking that there certainly seemed to be in the case 

 of carnations. The subject would apparently repay investigation. 



Inoculation of Leguminous Plants. — Mr. Chittenden produced a copy 

 of the suggested plan for carrying out a trial of the effect of inoculating 

 peas with cultures of nodule-forming bacteria at Wisley, and explained 

 the manner in which it was intended to estimate the result. 



Scientific Committee, January 28, 1908. 



Mr. E. A. Bowles, M.A., F.L.S., in the Chair, with sixteen members 

 present and numerous visitors. 



Inheritance of Pigment in Pisum sativum. — Mr. Hurst, F.L.S., com- 

 municated the following note from Mr. E. A. Bunyard, of Maidstone, on 

 "The Inheritance of Pigment in Pisum sativum": — "The green and 

 yellow colours of the cotyledons of Pisum sativum were selected by Mendel 

 as one pair of constant differentiating characters, and from their apparent 

 alternative inheritance the theory of gametic purity was deduced to 

 explain results obtained in this species. The lack of any definite 

 examination of the two colours in question led me to make some chemical 

 and photo-chemical experiments as below, the pigments of the cotyledons 

 alone being considered. The green pigment is, of course, chlorophyll, and 

 thin sections mounted in glycerin show the chloroplasts well, and give 

 the well-known ' hypochlorin reaction ' when treated under the cover-glass 

 with glacial acetic acid. An alcoholic extract also gives the well-known 

 bands in the red when spectroscopically examined, and the fainter bands 

 in the blue and violet. The yellow colour is due to a pigment of the 

 xanthophyll series, pigments which are always found in association with 

 chlorophyll in the green parts of plants. The point, however, which is of 

 importance is the gradual fading of the green (Sachs's ' degradation of 

 chlorophyll ') and the presence of the xanthophyll. The green chloro- 

 plasts, as the seeds attain maturity, gradually lose their green pigment, 



