clxxx PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 



Scientific Committee, December i, 1914. 



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



members present. 



Dianthus harhatus spirally contorted. — Mr. J. Eraser, F.L.S., showed 

 a photograph of Dianthus harhatus with its stem spirally contorted 

 and the leaves displaced from their usual opposite and decussate 

 position to a spiral arrangement. 



Pelargonium hybrids. — Mr. Fraser also showed specimens of 

 Pelargonium X ' Unique ' and P. x conspicuum, and made remarks 

 upon them which will be embodied in his report. 



New Plant. — Mr. W. C. Worsdell, F.L.S., showed a dried shoot 

 which he had collected in South Africa, probably in the Transkei, 

 with male flower. It was not referable to any known genus, but 

 showed closest affinities with the Sapindaceae, though apparently not 

 very nearly allied to either of the recognized sections of that family. 

 The leaves are pinnate, and the disc of the male flowers very highly 

 developed. 



Isoloma with supernumerary petals. — Mr. A. Worsley showed 

 flowers of an Isoloma which always produced more than the normal 

 number of petals. He had pollinated the original parent Isoloma 

 with pollen from a Gloxinia with more than five petals, and of the 

 seventy plants raised this was the only one showing any difference 

 from the normal Isoloma. It was constantly sterile, unlike the 

 majority of Isolomas. 



Black-fellow's Bread. — Dr. A. B. Rendle, F.R.S., showed a specimen 

 of the material known as black-fellow's bread which he had picked 

 up in Gipps Land, Australia. It was globular, reddish-brown, hard 

 and solid, weighed about 3 lb., and was about 6 inches in diameter. 

 The material has been known for some time, and was recognized as 

 of fungus origin by Berkeley, who thought it to be related to the 

 truffles, and named it, in 1839, Mylitta australis. Later, specimens 

 were sent to Dr. Cooke showing it to be a sclerotium, and bearing 

 fructifications which enabled Dr. Cooke to assign it to its proper 

 position. He named it Polyporus Mylittae (1892). The sclerotia 

 vary in size from that of a pea or hazel nut to that of a man's head, 

 and specimens weighing 39 lb. and 50 lb. respectively have been 

 recorded. The consistency when fresh is that of cheese or stiff gelatine, 

 but on exposure to air it hardens and becomes quite horny. Its 

 structure is that of the ordinary sclerotium, with multitudes of inter- 

 lacing hyphse. It is eaten by the aborigines, but has Httle nutritive 

 value, containing no starch or nitrogen, and only a small quantity of 

 pectase. It is somewhat like rice or tapioca to the taste, with a decided 

 flavour of coconut when fresh ; when toasted it is not unhke passover 

 cake. As growth proceeds it raises and cracks the sofl, which leads 

 to its discovery. 



Callipsyche aurantiaca. — Mr. W. E. Ledger showed an inflorescence 



