CCxlviii PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Finding Mercurialis annua to be an abundant weed in the allotment 

 grounds at Hythe, I collected some seed and sowed it very thickly in 

 two 3|-inch pots. In one, of a total of twenty-five seedlings, sixteen 

 w^ere male and nine female. In the other there were seventy-tlii'ee 

 plants : of these thirty-nine were male and ten female, the remainder 

 were too starved to produce flowers at all. The males, therefore, formed 

 74 per cent, of the total, and the females only 26 per cent. Not one 

 of the plants was above four inches in height, but the females were 

 decidedly stouter than the more slender males. " (See also p. ccli.) 



Hybrid Primula. — Messrs. Jas. Veitch sent a plant of Primula 

 japonica x P. Bulleyana, which they had named P. x Briscoei. The 

 habit of the plant, which was of vigorous growth, was that of 

 P. japonica, but the scape resembled P. pulverulenta, and the flowers 

 were in colour and form more like those of P. pulverulenta. 



Helenium ivith Virescant and Proliferous Flowers. — Mr. Marshall 

 showed specimens of Helenium grandicephalum with virescent and pro- 

 hferous flowers. {Of. Journal E.H.S. vol. xxvh. (1903), p. 943.) 



Sporting in Bouvardia. — A pink sport from Bouvardia ' President 

 Cleveland ' was sent. The branch sprang from the base of the plant 

 and all flowers borne upon it w^ere pink. 



Scientific Committee, September 27, 1910. 



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

 fourteen members present. 



Bulbs decaying. — A number of Narcissus bulbs teeming with bulb 

 mites and in a decaying condition were received for examination. It 

 seemed certain that the mites were the cause of the trouble, though 

 doubt is sometimes cast upon this idea. On this point Mr. A. D. 

 Michael wrote: I have investigated the question of the injury done 

 by the bulb mite to the best of my ability, and for the purpose of 

 tracing the life-history have kept specimens frequently under observa- 

 tion in confinement throughout their whole development from egg to 

 adult. I have found it best to feed them on sound, healthy bulbs, 

 which they eat with avidity. ... I have no doubt but that they attack 

 healthy bulbs, and I look on the creatures as true destroyers." (See 

 also " British Tyroglyphidse, " vol. ii., Bay Society, pp. 92-95.) 



Catasetum sp. — Mr. G. Rae Fraser, of Letchmore Heath, sent a 

 pistillate flower of a species of Catasetum from Trinidad, which Mr. 

 Eolfe considered to be probably C. macrocarpum, but as the pistillate 

 flowers of the different species of Catasetum are so similar to one 

 another, there is a little doubt about the name, w^hich can only be 

 settled w^hen the male flowers appear. The whole inflorescence has, 

 by the kindness of Mr. Fraser, been deposited in the Kew Herbarium. 



Fasciation in Eupliorhia Cyparissias. — A well-iuarked example of 

 fasciation in the stem of this Euphorbia w^as shown. 



Museum preparations. — Dr. J. A. Voelcker showed a section of a 

 woody stem prepared in the same manner as those of zoological 



