Clxxviii PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Origanum Marjorana, &c. — Mr. E. M. Holmes, F.L.S., having now 

 completed his examination of the Marjoram shown by Mr. Fraser on 

 September 22 (p. clxxvi), reported as follows : — 



" The plant is identical with a species received from Cyprus as 

 Origanum and examined at the Imperial Institute,* where its volatile 

 oil was found to contain 84 per cent, of carvacrol, a substance not 

 found in the oil of Origanum Marjorana. The plant was examined 

 by me and reported on in the Pharmaceutical Journal for September 

 1907, p. 378, and elsewhere, t I referred the plant to Origanum 

 marjoranoides of Willdenow, which is distinguished from 0. Marjorana 

 by its woody stem and perennial habit, by the flowerhead being 

 sessile at the top of the common peduncle, and by the hoary 

 leaves. 



" Dr. 0. Stapf considers that it is identical with the Origanum dubium 

 of Boissier, who states that there are two minute teeth at the base of 

 the calyx. These are not present in Boissier's own specimens, 

 according to Dr. Stapf, nor are they in the Cyprus Origanum. 



" Willdenow's specimen is in the Berlin Herbarium, and I have not 

 been able to see it. Whether his plant is identical with Boissier's 

 0. dubium, and whether 0. dubium yields an oil containing carvacrol, 

 has not been ascertained, but that the Cyprus Origanum is not identical 

 with 0. Marjorana may be regarded as certain, since the volatile oil 

 of the latter contains no carvacrol. Probably Mr. Eraser's plant was 

 raised from seeds of the plant sent from Cyprus, of which I distributed 

 some seeds." 



Pear x Quince. — Mr. J. C. AUgrove, of the Langley Nursery, 

 showed several fruits of the Pear raised by Mr. John Seden from the 

 Pear ' Bergamotte Esperen ' crossed with pollen from Portugal Quince 

 (see Journal R.H.S., Vol. XXXIII. pp. clxvii, clxxi). The fruits of 

 this type are essentially Pears, very similar in shape and appearance to 

 ' Easter Beurre,' very short-stalked, roundish, and plentifully dotted 

 all over with large dots. The flavour is good and the Pear ripens 

 long before its Pear parent ' Bergamotte Esperen,' being fit to eat at 

 the end of October. It will be remembered that the other plant 

 raised from the same fruit was quince-like in form, and never becomes 

 soft. 



Curiottsly-marked Apple. — Mr. E. M. Holmes showed a small 

 fruit of Apple ' Cox's Orange Pippin ' with a segment of about one-fifth 

 of the normal red colour of that variety, the remainder being green, 

 and the hues of demarcation being very sharply defined. This is no 

 doubt due to somatic segregation of the characters upon which colour 

 production depends, and is similar in kind to the phenomena grouped 

 under the term " bud variation," and to the results seen in parti- 

 coloured flowers. 



* Bull. Imp. Institute. 1906, vol. iv. pp. 207, 297. 



t Perfumery and Ess. Oil Record, February, 1913, p. 41, c, fig. 



