XXXvi PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Coloration of Apple Flowers and Fruit. — Mr.] H. J. Veitch, V.M.H., 

 showed a long series of flowers of apples, some having white or only very 

 slightly tinged flowers, while others had deeply coloured flowers. He 

 remarked that in each case the pale-flowered apple trees bore very brightly 

 coloured fruits, while those with deeply coloured flowers produced pale 

 fruits. Mr. Cuthbertson said he had observed a similar thing in turnips, 

 as in the ' Golden Tankard,' a turnip with yellow flesh, that produced 

 white flowers. Mr. Bowles said that the rule was not without exception, 

 as in Pyrus Niedzwetzkyana both the flowers and the fruits are very 

 deeply coloured. 



Bichanlias. — Mr. Chas. Woodbridge sent an inflorescence of Bichardia 

 Elliottiana, having a leaf arising close below the yellow spathe and 

 coloured like the spathe, except that the margin and tip were green. Mr. 

 Veitch showed R. x 1 Mrs. Roosevelt ' having a leaf arising from the base 

 of the plant, as is usual, coloured very pale green except at the tip, which 

 was similar in colour to the spathe. 



Double Bibes. — A branch with very much doubled flowers of Bibes 

 sanguincum, from Sir E. Loder (gr. Mr. W. A. Cook), of Leonardslee, was 

 referred to Mr. Worsdell. 



Potatoes. — Mr. A. W. Sutton, V.M.H., showed a very extensive and 

 exceedingly interesting series of plants of tuberous Solanums. Particularly 

 interesting were those of ' Papa Silvestre ' {Solanum Commersonii), the 

 wild potato of Uruguay. The examples had been grown from tubers 

 received direct from Montevideo. Five separate consignments of these 

 tubers have reached Mr. Sutton from his correspondent, who had himself 

 collected the tubers in several different localities. The separate lots 

 of tubers were found growing under very different conditions as regards 

 soil and locality, but in no case near cultivated land. In each in- 

 stance, so far as the plants have as yet developed, there is every reason 

 to think that each lot of tubers represents one and the same species. 

 With the last consignment Mr. Sutton received a certificate from 

 Senor Arechavaleta, Curator of the Botanical Gardens, Montevideo, 

 certifying that the tubers then sent were the true Solanum Commersonii, 

 agreeing in all respects with the plant introduced by Commerson 

 in 1767. Seficr Arechavaleta further stated that all the wild potatoes 

 found in Uruguay were one and the same type, and that they all bore 

 violet- coloured flowers. Mr. Sutton produced Mons. Roze's book entitled 

 " Histoire de la Pomme de Terre," in which there is an illustration 

 and description of Commerson's original plants fully confirming Senor 

 Arechavaleta's statement concerning the wild types of potato in Uruguay. 

 In connection with the exhibit Mr. Sutton called attention to the fact that, 

 so far as his information went, all the plants hitherto grown in Europe 

 under the name Solanum Commersonii were of the white-flowered type, 

 and it was certainly the white-flowered type which Mons. Labergerie 

 had experimented with. The white-flowered plant was apparently intro- 

 duced to Europe (Marseilles) between 1895 and 1901, and has since been 

 cultivated under the name Solanum Commersonii. 



Mr. Sutton also exhibited the following : — 



1. " Solanum tuberosum, wild species," grown from tubers raised from 

 seed received from Vermont Agricultural Experiment Station, 1906. 

 This seed was collected in Mexico. 



