Cliv PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
can at present be offered. The thanks of the Committee were 
unanimously accorded to Dr. Cooke for his interesting remarks. 
Root-Hairs .—Dr. Masters, in continuation of some previous 
remarks on this subject, and in allusion to the views of some 
French physiologists, who consider that pressure or hindrance 
to growth is a determining cause of the production of these 
hairs, exhibited a Eadish which had in course of its growth 
penetrated and made its way through a piece of rotten wood 
some £ inch in depth. In spite of the manifest obstruction, no 
root-hairs were produced, or, if any, only few and very minute, 
as is generally the case in fleshy roots. 
Curved Twigs of Cercis Siliquastrum. —Dr. Masters showed 
from Mr. Piffard specimens of twigs singularly bent and con¬ 
torted, owing to growth having been more vigorous on one side 
than on the other, but to what cause the appearance was due 
was not apparent, no trace of insect or fungus being visible. 
Plants Exhibited. —By the Hon. and Eev. J. T. Boscawen, 
Lister a nidus-avis, from Cornwall; by the Eev. H. Harpur-Crewe, 
various specimens of Narcissus, from Spain, including N. 
calathinus (?); N. Bulbocodium , sulphur-coloured variety, found 
in wet places near Ovideo ; N. minimus, from dry rocks near 
Panorbo. If the Narcissus be really found on more careful 
examination to be N. calathinus, the fact will be especially 
interesting, as, up to this time, it has only been recorded from 
an islet off the Brittany Coast. Mwscari dubia and armeniaca , 
Tulipa Orphanides, and other plants, were also exhibited by 
Mr. Crewe. Mr. Elwes showed specimens of Cypripedium 
pubescens, to show how greatly they varied in size, and exhibited 
specimens of species of Tulip which under cultivation attained 
within a very short time four times the size of the wild forms, 
and varied also in colour and markings. Tulipa Kolpakowskyana 
was also shown to illustrate the great range of variation in 
colour of this species. Habranthus fulgens (?), a species with 
hairy leaves and umbels of white flowers, was also shown. 
The Electric Light and Vegetation .—Mr. Jennings called attern 
tion to the circumstance that it was intended to illuminate the 
Great Show by means of the Electric Light; he thought that 
it would be most interesting if experiments could be made 
with a view to ascertain what effect would be produced upon 
flowers which close at night. He also alluded to the dis- 
