Ixxviii PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



that case, however, the bulb had been planted upside down. It would 

 appear that in such cases the power of response to the stimulus exercised 

 by gravity is very slight. 



Yellow Bose from Palestine. — Mr. A. W. Sutton, V.M.H., read a letter 

 from a correspondent concerning a yellow rose which grew near Baalbec, 

 specimens of which he also showed. Dr. Masters recognised the rose 

 as Bosa lutea, and Sir John Llewellyn said he had seen it growing so 

 profusely on the northern slopes of Mount Lebanon as to make a mass of 

 colour visible at the distance of a mile. 



Seedling of Delphinium Belladonna. — Mr. Sutton also showed flowers 

 of some seedlings raised from seed produced by Delphinium Belladonna 

 last year. This has not been known to produce seeds, at least since 1857, 

 when the first record of the plant seems to have been made. A few seeds 

 had been produced in the previous year, but none of these had proved 

 fertile. The flowers of some of the seedlings resembled D. Belladonna 

 very closely, but some more nearly approached D. formosum, and one bore 

 flowers of a very beautiful deep blue tint. 



Cannibalism among Caterjnllars. — Mr. Spencer Pickering, F.R.S., 

 said that in the course of some experiments with insecticides several 

 larVfT of the winter moth had been kept together in captivity, and in 

 one of the cages a caterpillar had devoured all its companions and others 

 which had been supplied to it ; eleven had been devoured in all, and the 

 cannibal had grown to about four times its normal size. It has now 

 turned into a chrysalis. It w411 be interesting, said Mr. Pickering, to 

 see whether the progeny of the moth will also possess carnivorous habits. 

 It was remarked that several species of caterpillars showed cannibalistic 

 propensities under certain circumstances. Mr. Holmes thought this was 

 the case particularly when water was withheld from them. 



" Silver-leaf" in Plums. — Mr. Spencer Pickering also said that he had 

 been conducting experiments with this disease, which had been attributed 

 to the fungus Stereum purpureum, a specimen of which he showed from 

 a diseased tree at the meeting of the Committee on October 24 last. 

 See JouRN. R.H.S. xxxi. p. Ixxxvii. A plantation of 112 young plum 

 trees had been made, and of these seventy-four had not been inoculated 

 with the fungus, while thirty-eight had small pieces of the fungus inserted 

 in their stems. Of the former none had developed the disease, while of 

 the latter twenty-eight show^ed the characteristic silvering of the foliage 

 within six weeks of the inoculation. This experiment confirms the results 

 already obtained by Professor Percival. 



Diseased Irises dc. — Mr. Worsley sent rhizomes and flowering stems 

 of Iris pallida and Iris cuprea apparently attacked by the bacterial 

 disease of Iris, concerning which a communication was read from Mr. 

 Massee at the last meeting. Mr. Worsley said that his stock of I. pallida 

 had been destroyed, most of I. cuprea, and all of I. Milesii, while some of 

 /. gigantea had been killed, and I. chinensis injured. I. germanica seems 

 almost immune in his garden, while J. foetidissima and I. Pseudacorus 

 are entirely so. He also sent leaves of Grinum yemense, from outdoors 

 and under glass, with leaves dying and becoming soft. C. Poioellii, 

 C. scahrum, G. giganteum, and several others had been similarly affected, 

 but none of the plants had died. G. Moorei seems exempt. Dead leaves 



