XXX PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
Scientific Committee, February 27, 1917. 
Mr. E. A. Bowles in the Chair, and nine members present. 
The late Mr. George Massee. — The Chairman referred to the great 
loss the Committee had sustained in the death of Mr. George Massee, 
V.M.H., who had for many years been a valued member of the Scientific 
Committee, and the Committee unanimously desired that its expression 
of sympathy should be sent to his family. 
The Action of Light in Inducing Variation. — Col. H. E. Rawson 
stated that "by the method of selective screening which he adopts 
with plants the coloured diffraction bands due to interference at any 
opaque edge are entirely transformed or their saturation modified. 
With the aid of a prism this is perceptible on every organ down to 
the finest filaments, and in the case of even minutely serrated edges 
of leaves. In considering changes in the intensity of light at different 
altitudes of the sun such modification should not be overlooked. The 
importance of this observation will be evident " to those who believe 
that the changes in the Tropaeolum which Col. Rawson has exhibited 
from time to time are the result of a response to changes in light 
intensity. 
Scale on Ixora coccinea. — Mr. W. Hales, A.L.S., exhibited scales of 
a curious filamentous shape occurring on the foliage of Ixora coccinea 
at the Chelsea Physic Garden, and remarked upon the difficulty of 
removing them by ordinary sponging. The scale appeared to be 
Ischnaspis filiformis (figured in the " Monograph Brit. Coccideae," 
I., p. 20, pi. xxviii). 
Anthoxanthum Puelii. — Mr. Fraser, F.L.S., exhibited dried speci- 
mens of Anthoxanthum Puelii and of A. odoratum. The former he 
had found growing in the grounds at Holland House. It is an annual 
of tufted growth, and regarded as a pasture or lawn grass quite useless 
—contrasting remarkably in its habit and growth with the more 
valuable A. odoratum. 
The Food Value of Garden Crops. — Some discussion took place 
with regard to the relative food values of commonly cultivated vege- 
tables, in the course of which the remarkable pre-eminence of the 
potato 'and the comparatively small value of the garden pea as a 
heat unit producer per unit of area were remarked upon. A list 
will be found in the R.H.S. Pamphlet on the " Cultivation of an Allot- 
ment." 
Scientific Committee, March 13, 1917. 
Mr. E. A. Bowles, M.A., F.L.S., F.E.S., in the Chair, and five members 
present. 
Seedlings of Acers. — Mr. J. Fraser, F.L.S., showed a series of 
seedlings of Acer Pseudoplatanus and A. campestre from wild sources, 
the former being more common than the latter. 
