SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE. 



cxcix 



Scientific Committee, November 23, 1915. 



Mr. E. A. Bowles, M.A., F.L.S., F.E.S., in the Chair, and twelve 



members present. 



Bud on Fern petiole. — Mr. W. C. Worsdcll, F.L.S., said he had 

 examined the pieee of frond of the Fern (Microlepia) shown at the 

 last meeting, and found that the bud arose from the upper surface of 

 the stalk, and not, as is more common with buds on Fern fronds, from 

 the lower. The position of an adventitious bud on the upper surface 

 is, however, normal for some species. 



Lilium sp. from Hong Kong. — Mr. H. J. Elwes, F.R.S., referred 

 as follows to specimens of a Lily sent from Hong-Kong : — " It seemed 

 to me to be indigenous, and it is included in the local floras as Lilium 

 Brownii. Of two specimens which I flowered one was much more 

 like L. longiflorum in leaf and in the tubular flower. Mr. Grove thinks, 

 as I do, that the Hong-Kong plant is most like what has been called 

 Brownii leucanthum from Central China, but that should have axillary 

 bulbils, and is a very different plant from the cultivated Brownii, 

 which, so far as Mr. Groves knows, has not been found in a wild state. 

 Franchet says that the only difference between longiflorum and 

 Brownii is that one has a glabrous and the other a pilose nectary, but 

 this difference in the flower of longiflorum which I send for comparison 

 seems trifling." These specimens were referred to Mr. W. C. Worsdell 

 for further examination (p. cci). 



Fruits of Citrus trifoliata. — Several small fruits (containing seeds) 

 of the hardy Citrus trifoliata (Aegle sepiaria) were sent by Lady 

 Ilchester from Holland House. They had been produced on a tree 

 9 feet high by 5 feet through, growing there. 



Foliose spathe of Cypripedium. — Mr. J. T. Bennett-Poe, V.M.H., 

 showed a flower of Cypripedium insigne ' Harefield Hall ' subtended 

 by a spathe which had developed into a leaf precisely similar to the 

 ordinary foliage leaves of that plant. The plarr^had borne a second 

 flower with a similar spathe. 



Supposed sporting in Pear. — Miss H. Barr, of Apsley Cottage, East 

 Grinstead, sent a Pear ' Beurre Diel ' with the following curious 

 history : "It was originally a Pear tree which bore very small, in- 

 different summer Pears, and a graft from a good tree, name unknown, 

 was put into it by a friend in this neighbourhood thirty years ago. 

 The graft never gave sign of growth, and the stock, which was cut back 

 when grafted, threw up fresh branches, and bore the same poor fruit 

 as before for twenty-five years. Then a new shoot appeared of quite 

 a different character, which blossomed and bore one very fine Pear. 

 This was only four years ago, and it was 18 inches below the place 

 where the graft was put in. To strengthen that shoot we cut off 

 the branches of the stock once more, after which three more shoots 

 of the same character as the one just mentioned appeared and bore 

 the same kind of fruit. These were still lower down on the parent 



