SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE, APRIL 21. 



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will gradually (that is in the course of four or five seasons) 

 very materially change, and that apparently without any fixed 

 law. The petals may or may not alter their colour or become 

 foliaceous ; the corolla may put on the form known as ' hose- 

 in -hose ; ' the peduncle will almost certainly be lengthened, and 

 the typical Primrose leaf will gradually vanish and give place 

 to a form intermediate between that of Primrose and Oxlip ; 

 the leaf, in fact, will be the only hybrid feature, so to say, none 

 of the other changes pointing either to that or any other par- 

 ticular direction. My impression is that the changes finally 

 result in sterilisation, and that the plant, if left alone, will never 

 recover its normal state, but I cannot speak with certainty on 

 this point. My experience is that the Bardfield Oxlip does not 

 readily seed itself, but my firm belief is that its pollen readily 

 fertilises the Primrose, and occasionally, but not often, the 

 Cowslip. It, in common with the others, is visited by many 

 sorts of insects." Mr. French sent a great variety of blossoms 

 of Primroses with white and pink corollas, as well as foliaceous 

 and other modifications ; of these he observes, " The enclosed 

 flowers are from Primroses which have seeded in a natural way 

 in my garden, but the changes have not been developed until the 

 second or third year has passed. My contention is that the 

 changes are due in part to cultivation, but very much more to 

 disturbances initiated by the application of pollen from other 

 plants, and more particularly from the stamens of the Bardfield 

 Oxlip, in the company of which they have been grown. It may 

 be of interest to say that I live on the limiting line of the two 

 species, the Oxlip and Primrose, and can easily point out the 

 most northerly Primroses and also the most southern Oxlips, 

 and at one place there is not a mile between the two ; 

 but the line is absolute, and neither plant intrudes into the 

 other's domain." Dr. Masters observed that the only change 

 the Oxlip undergoes in his garden is to sometimes assume a 

 pink colour. 



Welling tonia, ? Flowers. — Dr. Masters exhibited shoots of 

 the Sequoia gigantea with young terminal cones in the flowering 

 state. They are scarcely a quarter of an inch in length, and 

 therefore, easily overlooked, but being more globular in form 

 when once seen, they can be readily distinguished from the leafy 

 apices of other shoots. 



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