xxxiv PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



whites, I am convinced, originated in the same way. They were not pro- 

 duced by pollen of any white trumpet being conveyed to the stigma of 

 1 M. J. Berkeley,' and my reasons for this statement are : (1) no white 

 trumpets were grown near, and few, if any, were in bloom so early as 

 • M. J. Berkeley ' ; (2) early white trumpets, such as N. cernuus, invariably 

 in my large experience, modify the form of the $ parent ; and (3) the 

 appearance of flowers of this same character in every batch of seedlings 

 points to a uniform internal cause in ' M. J. Berkeley ' itself. Not only 

 the form of the rlower, but the foliage, stature, general habit, and precise 

 period of bloom are 'M. J. Berkeley ' in counterpart. 



" The variety ' M. J. Berkeley ' was raised by Messrs. Backhouse about 

 1840, and is pretty obviously a self-fertilised seedling from N. maximus, 

 which in its turn is a wild species indigenous on the French side of the 

 lowland Pyrenees. I have had bulbs ' direct from the wild habitat, and 

 have been in correspondence with a good botanist who has seen the plants 

 in bloom there, but I have never heard of any white wild variety of N. 

 ma.rimus. I have myself raised from self-fertilised seed of N. maximus 

 a rlower somewhat similar to 'M. J. Berkeley,' and that form has no 

 appearance in any single feature of being the result of a cross with one 

 of the white trumpet section. Personally I have no doubt whatever that 

 this is a sudden ' spontaneous ' break to white from yellow. 



" The nearest analogy I can adduce is the occasional appearance of a 

 pure- white form in wild beds of the yellow Pyrenean N. muticus, quite 

 reproductions, in every feature but colour, of muticus itself. No white 

 trumpet daffodil exists in the same zone as N. muticus, the little wild 

 white N. moscJiatus being thousands of feet higher in a remote valley. 



" I have no reason whatever to suppose that there is any white hybrid 

 blood in the ancestors of ' M. J. Berkeley,' i.e., that these white seedlings 

 exhibit a reversion to ancestral character. It seems more likely to be an 

 instance of a sudden 1 mutation ' from yellow to white in colour progress. 

 It is interesting to note that precisely the same thing has been noticed in 

 New Zealand in seedlings of ' M. J. Berkeley.' " 



Seedlings of Gnctum. — Mr. Hales showed seedlings of Gnetum 

 Gnemon, grown at the Chelsea Physic Garden, exhibiting the foot which 

 absorbs the food stored in the seed for the nourishment of the growing 

 seedling ; this foot is developed only to a very slight degree in some other 

 gymnosperms such as Ephedra (see p. 41). 



Delayed Flowering of Amaryllis. — Mr. Odell showed some llower buds 

 of Amaryllis Belladonna which were now appearing. The flowering had 

 been delayed in many cases in the autumn, apparently through the short 

 suitable season. Mr. Baker states that the normal period of flowering 

 was in April in the native habitat, but this statement was called in 

 question. 



Floral Malformations .— -Mr. Bowles, M.A., showed on behalf of Messrs. 

 Hogg & liobertson, of Dublin, a malformed llower of Narcissus 1 J. T. 

 Bennott-Poe.' The parts of the perianth and the stamens were each 

 nine, and springing from the base of the style was a narrow tubular 

 growth embracing what appeared to be a secondary style. This rlower 

 and a double-spathed Caladium, 1 L. A. Van Houtte,' somewhat similar 

 in structure to the double-spathed Bichardia shown at the last meeting, 



