SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE, JANUARY 11. 



XXV 



SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE. 



January 11, 1910. 



Mr. E. A. Bowles, M.A., F.KS., F.E.S., m the Chair, 

 and fourteen members present. 



Nomenclature of garden plants. — The Secretary reported that a 

 recommendation on the nomenclature of garden plants had been drawn 

 up for and sent to the Horticultural Congress at Brussels in the spring. 



Polygonum. — ^Mr. J. Eraser, F.L.S., shewed specimens of Poly- 

 gonum alpestre, which was at one time naturalized at Kew, where it had 

 grown for thirty years, but its habitat had been destroyed by the erection 

 of the new bridge and the plant exterminated. He also showed 

 specimens of Polygonum amphihium, showing the two forms (which' 

 are sometimes recognized by botanists as distinct) growing on one and 

 the same root. 



Variation in Ferns. — Mr. Chittenden, F.L.S., showed a specimen 

 of a variegated form of Nephrolepis canaliculata from Wisley, where 

 Mr. Blakey, the propagator, had noticed a solitary specimen among a 

 batch of young plants in 1908. The plant was isolated, and in 1909 

 produced spores, which were sown by themselves, and some 300 young 

 plants, were raised. Every plant showed the variegation in a greater or 

 less degree, some more markedly than the parent, some less. The 

 variegation was in no plant particularly marked, but tlie case is interest- 

 ing as an example of a sudden variation in kind being reproduced true, 

 although the degree of development of the variegation, which probably 

 depends largely upon external conditions, differed in the several plants. 

 He also showed a specimen of a congested form, which likewise repro- 

 duced the variation in every plant raised from its spores. The breeding 

 true to a sudden variation does not appear to be at all uncommon, 

 especially if care is taken to isolate the plants before the spores are 

 gathered in order to prevent mixtures of spores and possible crossing. 



Variation in, Bean seeds. — Mr. H. J: Veitch, V.M.H., showed a 

 number of Bean seeds, the history of which is as follows : In May, 

 1908, Mr. James Scott, of The Glade Gardens, Ditton Hill, sowed 

 seed of the dwarf Bean * Plentiful.' These are of a rather pale dun 

 colour. After gathering beans several times, the plants showed a 

 tendency to climb, and subsequently reached a height of five feet. The 

 flowers were pale heliotrope. After harvesting, the seed was found to 

 have a dark testa, marked by light splashes. These seeds were sown 

 in 1909, and produced plants reaching a height of six feet, and bearing 

 foliage considerably larger than that of the ordinary Scarlet Eunner, 

 while the flowers were of three colours — pure white, pale heliotrope, 

 and brownish. The seed of this generation varied greatly in colouring, 

 the following types being present : White, with extremely pale vein- 

 ings; purplish-brown; pure black; reddish-brown; pale pink, with 



