XCvi PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Pelargonium attacked by Botrytis. — Leaves and flowers of Pelargonium 

 ' Raspail ' were sent from Cheshunt, and the fungus was said to " attack 

 both old leaves and new ones as they break. I find it also attacks the 

 flower. A 90 ft. house of the pelargoniums up to a fortnight ago looked 

 a picture, but the plants are now suffering from disease." Mr. Massee, 

 Y.M.H., reported : " The disease is due to the presence of a fungus, 

 Botrytis vulgaris, which only becomes a destructive parasite when an 

 excess of moisture is present. Spray the plants with a solution of 

 sulphide of potassium, 1 oz. in six gallons of water, and add I oz. of soft 

 soap. Admit as much air as circumstances will allow." 



Fungus in Greenhouse. — A fungus growing near the roots of Cycas 

 revoluta, in a warm house, was sent from Cornwall. Mr. Massee 

 reported : u The fungus is Clavaria fragilis, Fr., a British species that 

 often appears among moss, ftp., and sometimes crops up in flower-pots. 

 It is not parasitic nor in any way injurious." 



Grapes and Arums Diseased. — Mr. Massee said that no fungus was 

 present on the grapes shown at the last meeting. 



West Indian Oranges. — Mr. Worsley said that the fruit he exhibited 

 at the last meeting under the name of "mandarin" orange does not 

 appear to be the same as that mentioned by Rivers in Nicholson's 

 " Gardeners' Dictionary." " He treated it as distinct from the tangerine. 

 Y'et it may be a garden form of the Chinese orange, possibly that 

 mentioned by Rivers as grown in the Azores. This is not improbable. 

 The seeds have long, horn-sbaped ends, more developed even than in the 

 blood orange of Malta and Palermo. The class of blcod orange is also 

 Japanese (or Chinese), and used to be imported fifty years ago to Palermo 

 from Japanese gardens in the form of dwarf grafted trees only a few inches 

 high. The appearance of the seeds lends colour to tbe view that the 

 specimen of the mandarin we had is also' of Chinese stock, even if altered 

 in appearance (of the fruit) by new conditions. The fruit I found juicy, 

 but more acid than the tangerine. The amount of seed points to the 

 tree being a seedling. Nearly all the Jamaican oranges are seedlings, 

 and this is why they are so crammed with seeds. I noticed this when in 

 Jamaica in 1895. AYhen they begin to garden in Jamaica they will soon 

 produce very fine oranges." 



Larch Cone with Elongated Axis. — Mr. Webb showed a cone of Larix 

 europcea in which the axis had elongated beyond the scales of the cone 

 some 3 or I inches. The cone was one of several similar growing 

 on a tree near Burnham Beeches. Dr. Masters described this condition 

 in "Veg. Teratology," p. 435. 



Tomatoes in Winter. — Mr. Worsley showed some tomatoes he had 

 gathered in the first week in October, and which had been kept in a cellar 

 since then. He stated that it was easy to keep tomatoes in this way until 

 the beginning of the new year, if care was taken to cLbose varieties which 

 were pointed at the end where the style grows. Varieties which were 

 open at that end very soon decay. The flavour, however, rapidly 

 deteriorates, but the fruits remain quite good for cooking. 



Magnolia Shoot with Fungus. — Miss King, of Wotton-under-Edge, 

 sent a shoot of Magnolia conspicua bearing numerous red spots, the fruits 

 of the fungus Tubercularia vulgaris. 



