CCXXX PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



When treated liberally, it appears to increase fairly rapidly, though 

 slow to grow when starved, numerous plants forming around the 

 central one. 



Frost, plant injured by. — Mr. J. Fraser, F.L.S., showed specimens 

 to illustrate the damage done by frost acting under varying conditions, 

 e.g. Bracken growing in the open (near London) became quite black, 

 while under an Oak tree it remained green. Solanum nigrum varied 

 considerably in the extent to which individuals suffered ; the pernicious 

 weed, Galinsoga parvifolia, originally from Peru, now too common in 

 market gardens in Surrey and Middlesex, was blackened by 4° to 5° of 

 frost ; but Chrysanthemum frutescens, from the Canaries, was uninjured. 

 While Datura Stramonium was killed, its fruits were uninjured, and it 

 persists as a weed in this country partly on this account, but also because 

 the seeds from any particular pod do not all germinate in the same 

 season. 



Malformed Orchids. — Mr. G. Wilson, F.L.S., showed malformed 

 Lycaste Shinneri, Odontoglossum, and Cattleyas, upon which Mr. Rolfe, 

 A.L.S., who examined them, reported as follows : " The flower of Lycaste 

 Shinneri has a free, dark purple filament, § in. long, opposite to one of 

 the side lobes of the lip, and as the latter has lost its colour and become 

 like the petals in texture, it is an evident case of replacement. There 

 are three flowers of Cattleya labiata, one in which the lip has reverted 

 to a simple petal, giving a regular perianth, while the column is straight 

 and has an additional perfect anther, showing that one side lobe of the 

 lip has been developed as an anther, while the other has been suppressed. 

 In a second flower the sepals have become petal-like in shape and colour. 

 In the third flower there are two sepals, two petals, and a slender column 

 and anther, the lip being totally suppressed, and the flower dimerous. 

 The other is a three-flowered inflorescence of Odontoglossum crispum 

 in which the column is abortive in each case, and the lip rather full, 

 though otherwise normal." 



Trifolium hybridum malformed. — Mr. H. T. Giissow, of the Central 

 Experimental Farm, Ottawa, Canada, sent some specimens of Trifolium 

 hybridum, which were sent to the botanical division of the Experimental 

 Farms, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, by a farmer whose crop showed a 

 peculiar development throughout. The heads were produced in axillary, 

 compound, long-peduncled umbels. The umbels measured from J in. to 



1 in. in breadth, and were 8 to 26 rayed. The pedicels were from 



2 to 4 mm. long, flattened, and 1 mm. broad. Involucre none, or 

 reduced to several scale-like bracts, 1 mm. long, acutely linear ; involucel, 

 scale-like, membranous bracts 1^ to 2 mm. long, umbellets 6 to 12 

 flowered. The flowers, unfortunately, could not be examined, as they 

 had not sufficiently developed. Any botanist might have been puzzled 

 to identify the plant if the inflorescences only had been sent. The plant 

 at first sight looked more like an umbelliferous ^than a leguminous 

 plant. 



