SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE, OCTOBEK 24. 



CCXV 



ing by registered sample post some seed of both S. arhorea and S. fru- 

 tescens. Both are very rare Teneriffe plants: S. arhorea had actually 

 vanished till I rediscovered it through a goat herd in 1906, and S. 

 fnitescens only occurs in one isolated spot in this island.. 



''The two plants, though said by botanists to be the same, are 

 very different in appearance at any rate. One is a tall, robust Statice, 

 and the other always dwarfer. 



" To ensure successful germination I always carefully extract the 

 seeds, and they come up a week or ten days after sowing. Otherwise 

 I soak them in water till they sink, which generally takes a week, and 

 then sow. They then germinate in about one month. In this 

 climate if I sow in, say, October, I always get flowers the following 

 summer, and they keep in flower practically all the year under irri- 

 gation."] 



Primula sinensis stellafa. — A remarkable instance of foliose develop- 

 ment of the calyx in Primula sinensis stellata was shown by Mr. Odell, 

 in which the calyx segments were many times as long as the petals, 

 and were of distinct leafy form. 



Vegetable Marroiu fasciated. — The well-marked example of this 

 common malformation was sent by Mr. "W. A. Voss, particularly re- 

 markable on account of the flowers being produced in pairs along the 

 stem, each pair consisting of either two staminate or two pistillate 

 flowers, and the fruits also. growing m pairs. 



Maljormation in Vitis sicyoides. — Mr. W. Patterson sent an 

 interesting specimen of a malformed Vitis sicyoides from St. Vincent. 

 The malformation is mentioned in Griesbach's Flora of the British West 

 India Islands (p. 102), where it is said to be common, but this is the 

 first specimen met with by Mr. Patterson. It was growing " just 

 where the conditions prevailing might be expected to exert influence 

 to encourage an inflorescence to grow into such a form — namely, 

 moisture and very little light." The specimen sent, which was over 

 15 inches in length and consisted of long, slender branches bear- 

 ing numerous short, whorled branchlets, was " part of one axillary 

 growth found on the ground under dense shade." Mr. Patterson 

 drew attention to dark streaks of fungus spores on the ultimate 

 'branches, and suggested that the malformation might be of pathological 

 origin. The fungus Schroeteria cissi present is a member of the 

 Ustilagineae and is no doubt the cause of the malformation. The form 

 to which it gives rise has been described as a type of a new genus, 

 Spondylantha aphijlla, by Presl., Rel. Haenk., ii., 35, t. 53 (1834). 



Cattleya x sororia, Rchh. /.—Mr. A. Eolfe exhibited a flower 

 which had been raised in the collection of W. Evans, Esq., of 

 Leicester, from C. Harrisoniaria crossed- with the pollen of C. hicolor, 

 and remarked that it was identical with the natural hybrid, C. X sororia, 

 Echb. f., and thus confirmed its supposed parentage, which was 

 originally in doubt. He also exhibited for comparison paintings from 

 the Dictionnaire des Orchidees of the two parents, remarking inciden- 

 tally that the one figured as C. Harrisoniana was wrongly labelled C. 



