XXxiv PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Some years since Messrs. Bull sent out a pink variety of the former as 

 C. nobile, so that C. nobile var. album would, under this nomenclature, 

 represent the type. The finest varieties of this species have widely 

 expanded flowers, such as var. Rattrayi &c. They are all fragrant, and 

 some of them (as in the case of the form now shown by Mr. Elwes) are 

 very fragrant. On this account the name ' vanilodorum ' was given to a 

 form of this species. C. Macowani has been the subject of much confusion. 

 The plant figured under this name in " Bot. Mag.," tab. 6381, is C. Moorei ; 

 C. Macowani is the southernmost representative of a widely distributed 

 species which spreads northwards at least as far as the equator, and passes 

 by indiscernible gradations into forms of C. latifolium. The form shown 

 by Mr. Elwes is practically sessile, and in this respect is not identical with 

 the forms originally described by Mr. Baker under C. Macowani (" Hand- 

 book of Amaryllideae," p. 94). 



Fungus on Retinospora. — Mr. Saunders, F.L.S., showed a specimen 

 of Retinospora (immature form of Juniperus chinensis) attacked by the 

 fungus Gymnosporang ium sp., which forms jelly-like masses on the 

 shoots. 



Auricula ivith Petaloid Stamens. — Mr. J. Douglas, V.M.H., showed 

 an auricula in which the stamens of most of the flowers had become 

 petaloid ; in some they were well developed, in others quite minute. 



Ceropegia Woodi. — Mr. Worsley showed seeds of this plant, which, 

 like so many of the family to which it belongs, is provided with a 

 parachute arrangement for the distribution of the seed. Mr. Worsley 

 said that the hairs appeared to be sticky. He also showed a shoot which 

 had been hanging down quite freely, bearing little tuberous growths upon 

 it. The formation of these small tubers had been attributed to contact 

 of trailing shoots with damp earth, but that could not have been the 

 exciting cause in this case. He thought that possibly irritation by insects 

 might have excited their formation. Not all shoots bear these tubers when 

 hanging freely down. 



Genetics. — Mr. Worsley thought that the Committee should by some 

 means or other be kept informed of the progress made in the investigation 

 in progress into the laws of inheritance, and it was left to the Secretary to 

 ascertain from members what could be done in this direction. 



Coloration of Hawthorn Leaves. — Mr. Holmes, F.L.S., showed leaves 

 of hawthorn bearing crimson patches, and remarked that these coloured 

 spots followed as the result of injury by insects, in the case in point appa- 

 rently by aphides. These colours so produced are not, it has recently been 

 shown, due to anthocyanin, but to bodies allied to the phenols. Mr. Holmes 

 stated that " M. Armand Gautier has shown ('"Comptes Rendus,' cxiv. 

 p. 624) that an injury done to the petiole of a vine -leaf causes the forma- 

 tion in the leaf of a red colouring matter, similar to that produced in 

 autumn, and he now states (' Comptes Rendus,' cxliii. p. 490) that the 

 colouring matter produced by injury or not, as previously supposed con- 

 cerning anthocyanin or erythrophyll, a uniform colouring matter derived 

 from chlorophyll, from which it differs in containing neither nitrogen nor 

 phosphorus, but belongs to the coloured phenol acids, is crystallisable, and 

 of the nature of tannin. These pigments vary with each kind of plant, 

 and those of fruits are not identical with those of leaves, although related 



