xxxii PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



infertile, but the hybrids produced seed when pollinated with pollen from 

 either of the parents. The pollen of the hybrids resulting from these 

 second crosses was fertile. 



Colletia spinosa. — Dr. Masters drew attention to two plants of this 

 species shown by Mr. Smith, of Worcester, which illustrated the great 

 variation in the form of the spinous leaves with which the branches are 

 furnished. So great is the difference that the various forms had been 

 described under the names Colletia spinosa and C. cruciata, but Mr. 

 Barnes, of Bicton, had long ago pointed out to Dr. Lindley that one plant 

 bore shoots of both types. The present examples illustrated this fact, 

 proving that the two species were really one and the same. 



Diseased Potatoes. — Mr. John Coutts, of Killerton Gardens, sent 

 tubers of potatoes he had received from a cottager showing in some cases 

 watery black marks throughout the flesh and in others hollowed spaces. 

 These appearances were recognised as due to the attacks of the winter rot 

 fungus, Nectria Solani. 



Effect of Environment in a Primrose Leaf. — Dr. Masters showed 

 drawings of a primrose leaf collected in Jersey, where the plant has been 

 growing on rocks by the seacoast. It was of the normal length and 

 breadth, but about a quarter of an inch in thickness, and showed many of 

 the anatomical characters common to seaside plants. 



Axial Proliferation in Carnation. — Mr. G. Reid, of Oxshott, sent a 

 specimen of carnation having a well-developed bud growing from the 

 middle of the flower, a well-known phenomenon frequently illustrated. 



Numerous specimens of diseased plants were received and reported 

 upon. 



Scientific Committee, April 16, 1907. 



The late Dr. M. T. Masters, F.R.S., in the Chair, and twelve other 



members present. 



Green Wood. — Rev. W. Wilks exhibited a dead branch having the 

 wood of a deep verdigris-green colour. All the fallen branches in a 

 certain wood in Sussex became of this green colour. Such wood is used 

 in making " Tunbridge ware," and owes its colour to the presence of a 

 fungus, Chlorosplcnium aeruginosum. 



Plants exhibited. — A species of Mcgaclinium with the curiously 

 flattened rachis was shown by J. B. H. Gooden, Esq., F.R.H.S., of 

 Sherborne, Dorset ; another orchid, under the name of the " beetle " 

 orchid of Australia, with flowers curiously simulating a beetle with long 

 antennae, shown by Mrs. Whitlaw, of AnieLden, Taplow, and an 

 interesting bigeneric hybrid between Diacrium bicornutum and Epiden- 

 drum Ellisii, with flowers of a pinkish colour, shown by Jeremiah 

 Colman, Esq., of Gatton Park. The terrestrial orchid, Satyrium corii- 

 folium (" Bot. Mag." tab. 2172), was shown by Messrs. Ware. It has a long 

 spike of yellow flowers, having the labellum at the upper part of the 

 flower, since the ovary is not twisted as in most orchids. A vote of 

 thanks was unanimously proffered to the exhibitors. 



