SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE, APEIL 5. 



xxxix 



thing; and another native name is " Native Beech." Its wood is said 

 to have a reddish tint. 



Chinese plants.— Mr. G. Paul sent plants of Ilex Pernyi in flower 

 (the flowers of this beautiful Chinese species prove to be hermaphrodite), 

 Osmanthus Delavayi, with flowers about four times the size of those 

 of 0. ilicifolius, and reminding one of an Escallonia, and Carrierea caly- 

 cina, figured in Rev. Hort., 1896, p. 398. 



Pritzel's Iconum Botanicarum Index. — The Council sent the follow- 

 ing communication in reply to the resolution sent to them from the 

 last meeting: " The Council having considered the resolution touching 

 Pritzel's Index sent up from the Scientific Committee, desire to inform 

 the Committee that they are in communication with the authorities of 

 the Botanical Department at Berlin, and await a reply before taking 

 further steps in the matter. 



Opuntia in Queensland. — Professor Henslow sent the following 

 communication which he had received from Surgeon- General Geo. 

 Henderson, M.D., F.L.S., formerly Director of the Eoyal Botanic 

 Gardens, Calcutta: — " In a communication to the Eoyal Horticultural 

 Society's Journal for March 1910, at p. 350, I see you notice the 

 Prickly Pear in Queensland. In the Punjab, before annexation, about 

 1849, this plant was a pest, and covered many miles of country. 

 Einghit Singh is said to have had out some of his regiments to cut it 

 down; but that did no good, unless it were burned, for every bit of it 

 rooted and produced more plants; but about 1845 the wild cochineal 

 insect was introduced (by mistake, it is supposed, for the cultivated or 

 domesticated one), and, as if by magic, it spread all over the province 

 and destroyed the Prickly Pear, which has never given any trouble 

 since. I can find few references to this matter in any books, but I 

 find one letter from Sir Donald McLeod, then Mr. McLeod, Commis- 

 sioner of Lucknow, at p. 265 of Select Papers of Agri-Horticultural 

 Society of Punjab, 1868. The letter is dated December 1852, and 

 merely mentions the fact that ' an extraordinary influx of this insect 

 (cochineal) almost exterminated the plant.' I lately wrote to Sir 

 William MacGregor, Governor of Queensland, and told him about this. 

 The cochineal could be easily introduced, for I took two pieces of Prickly 

 Pear covered with the insect from Tenerilife to New Zealand in 1883, 

 simply stuck on to two nails in my cabin wall, and delivered them to 

 Dr. Hector when I arrived. I find, in the book referred to, a few casual 

 references to the disappearance of the plant from the Punjab, but 

 nothing very definite. I know for certain that the plant had never given 

 any trouble up to 1889, for I lived much in the Punjab." See also 

 Baden-Powell's Punjab Products (1868), p. 194. 



