^A.^ VII 



Lamium amplexicaale. — Mr. J. Fraser showed specimens of this 

 common weed, which, he said, usually produced cleistogamous flowers, 

 but of which he had found specimens bearing well-developed open 

 flowers in different localities in the north and midlands. 



Potato tumour. — Mr. W. Cuthbertson sent a specimen of Potato 

 in which the leaf was attacked by the organism of Potato tumour, 

 Synchytrium endobioticunt. The disease rarely occurs upon the 

 aerial portions of the plant. 



Magnesium and Lime. — Dr. J. A. Voelcker drew attention to two 

 cases of infertility in what was apparently good soil, to which his atten- 

 tion had been drawn recently. In both he had found abundance 

 of the necessary elements of nutrition, but in each the percentage 

 of magnesia was greater than that of lime. He has frequently drawn 

 attention to the result of this excess of magnesia in producing 

 infertility, and to the cure, which is application of a further dressing 

 of lime. 



Nerines, Time of Flowering. — Mr. J. T. Bennett-Poe, V.M.H., 

 drew attention to the time of flowering of a beautiful Nerine which 

 he exhibited, named ' Rotherside,' which had been raised from seed 

 of Fothergillii major, which flowers at the end of August, the pollen 

 parent being unknown. The flowering time of the seedling was at 

 the middle and end of October, owing probably to the influence of 

 the pollen parent. 



Malformed Honesty. — A curious fruit of Honesty sent by Mr. J. 

 Staley, of Hayling Island, was exhibited. The dissepiment had two 

 outgrowths from it, so that four wings were produced at right angles 

 to one another. The fruit showed signs outside of the presence 

 of these wings in the formation of four valves. 



Sporting in Coprosma. — Lady Lawrence sent shoots of a Coprosma 

 for which the name burfordensis was proposed, in which the variega- 

 tion of C. Baueri variegata, from which it had sported, was transposed. 

 In the original plant the margin of the leaf was yellow, the centre 

 green ; in the sport the centre was yellow, the margin green. 



Supposed sporting in Pear. — Mr. C. H. Hooper sent foliage from a 

 large Black Worcester Pear tree about 80 to 100 years old and about 

 40 feet in height. It had, he thought, been grafted near the ground 

 line. Eight feet from the ground a clean grown branch exists some 

 seven years old, which has fruited some two or three years. The 

 leaves of this branch are two or three times the size of those of 

 the Black Worcester, and the fruit is golden and ripe at the end of 

 August instead of in late autumn. No budding or grafting has been 

 done during the forty years the owner has known the tree. 



It is, of course, difficult to say definitely whether the grafting was 

 done at the bottom of the tree after this lapse of time, and if, as is 

 possible, it was done some distance up, it is probable that the supposed 

 ** sport " is really a branch from the stock. 



