SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE, AUGUST 18. cxix 



Mutations in Shirley Poppies. — Mr. Chittenden showed, on behalf 

 of a correspondent, a number of dried flowers of the Shirley Poppy, all of 

 which had bracts just under the flower or where the flowers should be, 

 some two, others three, four, five, or six bracts without flowers ; while 

 others produce bracts with semi-double or quite double flowers. Neither 

 the Rev. W. Wilks nor any other member of the Committee had seen 

 bracteate flowers in this plant. It would be interesting to know what was 

 the origin of the seed, and whether the peculiarity came true from seed. 



Fern growing in bottle. — Mr. Druery, V.M.H., exhibited in a pickle 

 jar, sealed with a glass and rubber stopper, wired on to prevent removal, 

 a mass of vegetation consisting of -a Scolopendrium, two Lastraeas, and 

 a dense tangle of confervoid growth, the whole of which had arisen 

 from a small piece of the base of a Hart's-tongue frond, bearing a minute 

 bud, which had been placed in the jar fully four years ago, and the spores 

 and animal eggs, &c, which had gained entrance with it at the time when 

 it was sealed and secured. About an inch of clean- washed coarse silver 

 sand was first introduced, and upon the damp surface the base and bud 

 in question were simply dropped. The jar is about 8 inches high and 

 3 inches square, and from the commencement the growth has been 

 healthy, the fronds of the Hart's-tongue Fern reaching the stopper, while 

 the confervoid growth is dense in the centre, and has spread half-way up 

 the sides. The two seedling Lastraeas have remained small, but have 

 produced new fronds this season, while several healthy green fronds of 

 the Hart's-tongue spring from the centre from amid the debris of the old 

 ones of the three previous years' growths. The question raised by this 

 exhibit is, Whence has the material for all this growth been derived ? 

 The originally enclosed air could only have contained a three-thousandth 

 part of carbonic acid gas, i.e. a minute atom of carbon, altogether out of 

 proportion to the debris of dead fronds and the volume of cellular growth 

 of the living ones which have been generated in the jar since it was closed 

 four years ago. If it be assumed that the glass is porous, and thus 

 permits air circulation, and consequent fresh supplies of carbonic acid gas 

 by the law of gas diffusion, how is it that aqueous vapour has not also 

 been transferred, and the quantity of water reduced during so long a 

 period to nothing ? Carbonic acid, too, is not the only food required, and 

 the amount of assimilable salts contained in well-washed quartz sand, 

 freed from all vegetable admixture by such washing, save perhaps 

 confervae or other spores, can hardly be regarded as adequate for such 

 results, and for persistent growth, such as is shown. A small worm has 

 also been noticed inside the jar. While expressing interest in the experi- 

 ment, the members of the Committee greatly doubted whether the bottle 

 was really hermetically sealed. 



