SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE, MARCH 8. Xxtii 



the foliage, the colour being especially noticeable in winter time, 

 so that the plant makes a good setting for bulbs. The winter 

 coloration of the leaves of this species is analogous to that ob- 

 served in some of the Ivies, notably the variety atro-purpurea, 

 which turns nearly black in winter. A flower of the rarely seen 

 Dissochroma viridiflora from the same garden was shown. It is 

 remarkable for its green colour and the peculiar shape of its 

 large corolla — between funnel-shaped and bell-shaped. 



Disease of Mountain Ash. — The Eev. W. Wilks sent a 

 specimen, accompanied by the following letter : "I noticed a 

 Mountain Ash tree with a very stout large trunk fit to carry a 

 tree of large dimensions, but the actual tree was comparatively 

 very small and stunted, and every twig of every branch was 

 ended in this way, the diseased part being always downwards 

 underneath the line of the stem bearing it. The tree at a dis- 

 tance looked almost like some evergreen, so densely was it 

 crowded with these diseased parts." In the specimen the ends 

 of the branches presented oblong or club-shaped swellings 

 irregularly cracked on the surface, as well as deeply fissured in 

 places. Internally it consisted of woody tissue of harder con- 

 sistence than usual, the deep fissures being lined with dead wood, 

 around which the new and harder, wood was deposited. A simi- 

 lar condition is not very uncommon in the Hawthorn, but the 

 determining cause is unknown, and can probably only be ascer- 

 tained in the young state, which, unfortunately, rarely comes 

 under observation. The deep tunnel-like cracks are suggestive 

 of insect injury, and of subsequent efforts to repair the damage. 



Scientific Committee, Maech 22, 1892. 



W. Blandfokd, Esq., in the Chair, and six members 

 present. 



Hybrid Narcissi. — Eev. G. Engleheart exhibited further 

 specimens of his reciprocal crosses between N. Corbularia 

 monophylla and N. triandrus, which showed that the same results 

 accrued in whichever direction the cross was effected. A 

 Botanical Certificate was recommended to Mr. Engleheart in 

 recognition of the interest and success of his experiments. 



