SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE, NOVEMBER 18. 



cciii 



filix-ftvmina var. plumosa, Droery, showing a profusion of young plants 

 developed from dorsal — i.e. soral — bulbils, which first appear as fleshy 

 excrescences among the sporangia, most of which abort. As a rule, the 

 bulbils only develop into minute excrescences, it is extremely difficult to 

 maintain vitality during the winter, owing to the almost immediately sub- 

 sequent decay of the deciduous fronds ; hence only few plants have been 

 raised by this means. This year, however, due probably to the moist 

 season, the bulbils appeared much earlier than usual, and developed fronds 

 which appear in the specimen very clearly on the upper surface. This 

 proliferous trait is inherited from the progenitor, the Axminster A. f. 

 plumosa. 



Apple Pyriform. — Mrs. Bayldon, of Dawlish, sent an Apple closely 

 resembling a Pear, from a large tree in an old cottage garden. 



Black Hamburgh Grape failing. — Abortive flowering shoots were sent 

 by Mr. G. H. Ricketts of Cranemoor Lodge, Christchurch, Hants, who 

 obse rves that "every year the branches promise fairly well, but the Grapes 

 fall, and are good for nothing." Failure in root-action, probably water- 

 logging, was the general opinion of the Committee. Mr. S. T. Wright of 

 Chiswick, to whom they were submitted, reports that, in his opinion, the 

 Vine is "Canon Hall Muscat, a notoriously bad setter, which only 

 succeeds well as a bearer in a few places. I would suggest rooting it out 

 or grafting with a more reliable variety. Black Hamburgh never shows 

 bunches in the form of the specimen sent." 



Potatos with tu herons shoots.— -Mr. C.Osman, Sutton, showed samples 

 of Potatos which had sent out shoots, each of which bore numerous small 

 Potatos. The peculiarity had been figured by Dr. Lindley about the 

 middle of the last century, but it is not so common as super-tuberation or 

 secondary tubers issuing from the main one. This has been common in 

 certain places this year, apparently due to prolonged degree of damp warm 

 weather, which causes the Potato to start into growth, but instead of 

 forming leafy shoots produces tubers. The variety known as " The 

 Garden " is said to be particularly liable to it. 



Plant Dyes. — Dr. Plowright sent the following communication, to- 

 gether with specimens of the dyes described : — 



" The Common Larkspur. — Delphinium Consolida, as the older 

 botanists used to call it, is a plant of considerable interest. The generic 

 name Delphinium, for instance, is taken from Delphis, a dolphin, the 

 similitude being in the flower-buds before they expand. One of the aberrant 

 members of the Banunculacece, it was in the olden times admitted to a 

 place in the English flora on doubtful grounds. 'The expressed juice of 

 the petals with the addition of a little alum makes a good blue ink,' as With- 

 ering tells us in his Botanical Arrangements (14th edition). The quantity 

 of juice which can be expressed from the petals is very little ; but when 

 they are crushed with a small quantity of water, and alum added, a green 

 liquid is obtained. That it is possible to write with this is evident from 

 the sheet of writing now exhibited; but whether it merits the designation 

 of ink is another matter. The green colour is not due to chlorophyll. It 

 is capable of retaining its colour for more than a year, as is evident 

 from the specimen exhibited : in point of fact, the sentence written with 

 the 1901 ink is rather darker than that written with the 1902 ink. Put 



F f 2 



