SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE, MARCH 11. 



xli 



Scientific Committee, March 11, 1902. 

 Mr. A. D. Michael in the Chair, and twelve members present. 



Burr on JEscuhis. — Mr. Odell reported that he had been unable to 

 find any mites on the specimen exhibited at the last meeting. 



Clematis ghjcinoidcs. — Mr. Odell exhibited a flowering specimen of 

 this Australian species. 



Unhealthy Palms. — Six pots of Kentias were sent for the opinion of 

 the Committee. Mr. Odell reports that he finds no fungus on the living 

 plants, and considers the malady to be constitutional. Some fungus 

 spawn was found in the soil growing on the fragments of decayed wood. 



Bi-coloured Cyclamen. — From the gardens, Sandhurst, Kunfold, 

 Farnham, came a plant of Cyclamen persicum (latifolium), with white 

 and rosy flowers originating from the same tuber. Dr. Masters com- 

 mented on the interest of the specimen, as showing an instance of 

 variation uninfluenced by hybridisation. 



Slime-fungus. — Dr. Cooke reported on the leaves of an unknown 

 plant, submitted to the last meeting. The leaves were covered super- 

 ficially with pink splashes of a chalky-looking nature, upon which, here 

 and there, were small gyrose nodules, not larger than a Rape-seed, of 

 pitch-brown colour. All this flaked off easily, and left the plant green 

 and uninjured. The brown portion consisted of a mass of subglobose 

 spores of a brownish-violet colour, evidently belonging to some slime- 

 fungus or My xog aster. Being unable to identify the species, he sent it to 

 Mr. Geo. Massee, who has published a monograph of this group, and this 

 is his reply : — " The substance is undoubtedly the plasmodium of some 

 Myxomycete, but of what species I cannot say. It is quite superficial, 

 and would do no harm to the plant it occurred upon." 



Pcepalanthus sp. — Mr. E. M. Holmes showed a species of Ptepalantlius 

 (nat. ord. Eriocaulece), nearly allied to P. elegans and P. niveus, which 

 is used in the district where it grows, on the banks of the Amazon, for 

 decorative purposes. The white persistent dry bracts of the involucre 

 give it the appearance of a Helichrysum. Its long, slender, pliable stalks 

 render it useful for a variety of decorative purposes. 



Jujube. — Mr. Holmes also exhibited specimens of a large variety of 

 Zizyphus Jujuba cultivated in China, and preserved as a sweetmeat. The 

 preserved fruits are about the size of Dates, but broader and flatter, and 

 have a striated surface. According to Sir Thos. Hanbury the Chinese 

 call them Meih-Tsau, or honey Jujube, and prepare them by making 

 longitudinal incisions in the fruit with a knife, and then plunge the fruit 

 into honey, subsequently drying it. It is prepared in Hang-chow, the 

 district that yields the best green Tea. The preserved fruit forms an 

 excellent article for dessert, and it is surprising that it has not hitherto 

 been imported for that purpose into Great Britain. Bretschneider, in the 

 Botanicum Sinicum, vol. ii., p. 119, No. 278, under Ta Tsao (great Jujube), 

 quotes the following from the Chinese writer, Kno P'o : — " There is now 

 in Ho-tung, in I-shi-hien (South-western Shansi), a kind of Tsao of the 

 size of a hen's egg," and explains that this is probably the large Jujube 

 now produced chiefly in Shan-tung, which the Chinese preserve with 



