SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE, NOVEMBER 23. 



ccxxxi 



Scientific Committee, November 23, 1909. 

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



Potentilla with virescent flowers. — Mr. Holmes, F.L.S., showed a 

 flower of Potentilla sp., in which the carpels were leafy. He also reported 

 that the acorns which stock refused to eat, shown by Mr. Bowles, were 

 those of Quercus pedunculata, and showed no morphological difference 

 from the ordinary form characteristic of that plant. 



Monstrous Apple flower. — Mr. Pickering, F.R.S., showed the flower of 

 Bramley's Seedling Apple, having twenty-five petals, but otherwise com- 

 pletely formed. 



Garden Pansies. — Mr. Fraser, F.L.S., referred to the degeneration of 

 the flowers of garden pansies when allowed to seed themselves in culti- 

 vated ground. He found that bees, cabbage butterflies, and other insects, 

 but especially the silver Y moth, visited them with great regularity, and 

 it seems probable that the degeneration is due to crossing. 



Cattleya with diphyllous growth. — Mr. Hawkes, Osterley Park 

 Gardens, sent a growth of Cattleya Gashelliana which had produced two 

 leaves. This condition, Mr. Rolfe, A.L.S., said, is probably a reversion 

 to an ancestral type, and is occasionally seen in other monophyllous 

 Cattleyas. Mr. Hawkes also sent a vigorous shoot of Bochea (Kalosanthes) 

 coccinea, having at the apex of the stem numerous shoots about 6 inches 

 long, instead of flowers. The Committee thought that the condition was 

 the result of growing the plant in a moist atmosphere, an opinion con- 

 firmed by the fact that roots had made their appearance at the apex of 

 the main stem. 



Juglans Ailanthifolia fruiting.— Mr. Gumbleton sent ripe fruits of 

 Juglans Ailanthifolia from his garden at Belgrove, Queenstown. This is 

 the first time the tree has fruited since Mr. Gumbleton planted it thirty 

 years ago. The fruits are dark and velvety in appearance, smaller than 

 those of J. regia, and are borne six to eight in a raceme. Mr. Gumbleton 

 said that, so far as he was aware, the tree had only once before fruited in 

 the kingdom, at Abbotsbury, in Dorsetshire. 



Bitter-Bot in Pears. — From Mr. Rogers, Hexworthy, Launceston, 

 came Pears attacked by the fungus Gloeosporium fructigenum, causing 

 the "bitter-rot." It was stated that "the disease seems to begin as small 

 rounded brown patches on the outside, and, in some cases, if these are cut 

 out, the rest of the pear is quite good, but in other cases, although the 

 inside of the pear looks quite good, a strong bitter flavour goes right 

 through it. The varieties which have suffered most are ' Thompson,' 

 ' Fondante d'Automne,' and ' Beurre Hardy ' ; ' Louise Bonne ' has also 

 suffered a good deal, and some other varieties slightly, but ' Durondeau ' 

 not at all." The fungus is said to form canker spots on the stems, and 

 these should be cut out, and, with the pears, destroyed by fire. If thrown 

 on the rubbish heap, or if the diseased fruits are allowed to rot on the 

 ground, or are fed to pigs, there is a danger of the spores escaping and 

 attacking the fruit next year. The spores produced on diseased fruits in 

 the store are able to attack and cause disease in neighbouring fruits. The 

 disease is to be kept in check by the destruction of the diseased fruits, as 



