SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE, SEPTEMBER 15. CCXvii 



following note may, therefore, be of interest. A gentleman in King's 

 Lynn purchased in the month of December 1907 a number of bulbs. 

 These were, for security, placed in a paper bag upon a shelf in the 

 kitchen. By some mischance the daffodil bulbs became mixed with the 

 household stock of onions, and eventually were sliced up together with 

 them and used in the preparation of soup, which was partaken of by the 

 whole family. Shortly after the meal all the members were sick, they 

 vomited freely, and suffered more or less from nausea, but they had 

 neither abdominal pain nor diarrhoea. Recovery took place in from six 

 to eight hours. The actual number of Daffodil bulbs used could not be 

 ascertained. The remainder of the soup was used on the following day 

 with the same result. This led to the investigation of the onion stock. 

 That the illness was not due to ptomaine poisoning is shown by the 

 complete recovery in eight hours, and by the absence of pain and 

 diarrhoea." 



Alien plants, &c. — Mr. Fraser, F.L.S., showed a specimen of 

 Erysimum altissimum L., a plant previously recorded as occurring 

 spontaneously in Britain in the "Journal of Bot.," vol. x., under the 

 name of Erysimum pannonicum, and in the " Flora of Surrey " (1863) as 

 being found as an introduced plant at Battersea Fields. Mr. Fraser had 

 himself found it at East Ham in 1906, at Greycoat Place, Westminster, 

 1907, and on Putney Common, and on the new Kingsway and Aldwych 

 sites this year. The specimen he showed had its petals reduced to the 

 claw, as if resorting to self-fertilization. In addition to this plant he had 

 found upon the Kingsway and Aldwych sites the following British 

 plants : Epilobium angustifolium, E. hirsutum, Senecio viscosus, Pyrus 

 Malus, Brassica Bapa, Cnicus arvensis, C. lanceolatus, Sonchus arvensis, 

 Pteris aquilina, and Centaurea Gyanus ; and the following aliens : Salvia 

 verticillata, Erigeron canadensis, Fragaria chiloensis, Eschscholzia cali- 

 fornica, Cucurbita Pepo, Helianthus annuus, (Enothera biennis, and 

 Papaver somniferum. 



Scientific Committee, September 15, 1908. 



Dr. M. C. Cooke, M.A., V.M.H., in the Chair, and eight members 



present. 



Mushrooms from spores. — Dr. Cooke, V.M.H., read a communication 

 concerning a Mushroom, Agaricus elvensis, which had occurred in two 

 gardens after pieces of this species had been thrown out, and which had 

 evidently grown from the spores so distributed. They had, after their 

 first appearance, grown in the same spot year after year. (See p. 219.) 



Diseased plants— -Mr. Giissow reported that he had examined the 

 Apples referred to him at the last meeting ; and had found nothing upon 

 them except punctures made by some insect. He had also examined the 

 Yew shoots, and was of opinion that they had been injured either by 

 something having been poured over them or by fumes. 



Sports in Papaver Bhoeas.—MY. W. G. Smith, Dunstable, wrote in 

 reference to the Shirley Poppies with bracts at the base of the flowers and 

 otherwise varying from the normal, saying that he had noticed similar 



