Vegetable Teratology / An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants

Nymphæaceæ.

Berberidaceæ.

Papaveraceæ.

Cruciferæ.

Cistaceæ.

Violaceæ.

Caryophylleæ.

Alsineæ.

Malvaceæ.

Hippocastaneæ.

Geraniaceæ.

Ternströmiaceæ.

Aurantiaceæ.

Papilionaceæ.

Rosaceæ.

Pomaceæ.

Amygdaleæ.

Myrtaceæ.

Philadelphaceæ.

Onagraceæ.

Portulacaceæ.

Grossulariaceæ.

Saxifragaceæ.

Umbelliferæ.

Rubiaceæ.

Caprifoliaceæ.

Campanulaceæ.

Ericaceæ.

Epacridaceæ.

Primulaceæ.

Jasminaceæ.

Oleaceæ.

Apocyneæ.

Convolvulaceæ.

Solanaceæ.

Gentianaceæ.

Orobanchaceæ.

Scrophulariaceæ.

Gesneraceæ.

Verbenaceæ.

Nyctagineæ.

Laurineæ.

Iridaceæ.

Amaryllidaceæ.

Orchidaceæ.

Hydrocharidaceæ.

Asphodeleæ.

Liliaceæ.

Colchicaceæ.

Butomaceæ.

Commelynaceæ.

NOTE.

Fasciation (see p. 11).—The following plants may be added to the list:—Acer eriocarpum, Arabis albida, Brassica oleracea, var., Guarea, sp., Artabotrys sp. In all, with the exception of the first-named, the fasciation occurred in the inflorescence. In some species of Artabotrys, indeed, fasciation and curvation of the inflorescence are common.

Synanthy (p. 39).—Several additional instances of adhesion of two or more flowers in Calanthe vestita, C. Veitchii, and other forms of this genus may be cited. These furnish further illustrations of the much greater liability of some plants to particular changes as compared with others. Scilla bifolia, Gagea arvensis, and Viola odorata may be added to the list of synanthic plants.

Alterations of placentation, &c. (see pp. 98, 483).—M. Casimir De Candolle, in a letter to the author, dated March 8th, 1869, thus writes of the existence of a double row of carpels in Pyrus spectabilis and Cratægus Oxyacantha, "a longitudinal section of a double flower of Pyrus spectabilis shows two rows of carpels, placed one above another. The arrangement of the vascular bundles shows that the upper row is external in relation to the lower series. The carpels of the latter are wholly coalescent as in a pear, while those of the upper verticil are only partially coherent or sometimes quite distinct. The placentation is constantly axile in the inferior row and parietal in the upper one. The number of ovules in each carpel of the superior row varies greatly, and they are often, but not always, inserted in two longitudinal ranks, as is constantly the case in the lower carpels. Double flowers of Cratægus Oxyacantha present the same anomalies." For analogous instances in Digitalis, see p. 98. See also p. 380, Saxifraga.

Prolification, p. 120.—A. P. De Candolle, "Organographie Végétale," tab. 40, figures an instance of suppression of one lobe of the ovary in Iris chinensis, and of the presence at the base of the flower of an adventitious and imperfect flower-bud, as in the Phlomis, mentioned at p. 119.

Monœcious Misleto, p. 193.—In this specimen, exhibited at one of the meetings of the Scientific Committee of the Royal Horticultural Society in 1869, there were both male and female flowers on the same bush. The plant was of the male sex, with numerous long slender whip-like, somewhat pendulous, branches bearing comparatively large broad yellowish leaves, and fully developed male flowers at the end. From the side of one of these male branches, near the base, protruded a tuft of short, stiff branches, bearing small, narrow, dark green leaves, ripe berries and immature female flowers. There was no evidence of grafting or parasitism, of the female branch on the male, the bark and the wood being perfectly continuous so that the only tenable supposition is that this was a case of dimorphism.

Adventitious leaflet and pitcher, see pp. 30 and 355. In a species of Picrasma, in which the leaves are impari-pinnate and spread horizontally, an adventitious leaflet was observed to project at right angles to the plane of the primary leaf. It emerged at a point nearly corresponding to that at which the normal pinnæ were given off. The appearance presented was thus like that of a whorl of three leaves, except that the shining surface of the adventitious leaflet, corresponding to the upper face of the normal leaflets, was directed towards the axis, i.e., away from the corresponding portion of the neighbouring pinnæ, while the dull surface, corresponding to the lower part of an ordinary leaflet, looked towards the apex of the main leaf, or away from the axis. In one instance, a stalked pitcher was given off from the same point as that from which the supernumerary leaflet emerged, the pitcher being apparently formed from the cohesion (congenital) of the margins of a leaflet.

In the normal leaf of this plant there is between the bases of the pinnæ, a small reddish gland or stipel? attached to, or projecting from, the upper surface of the rachis. It appeared from some transitional forms that the adventitious leaflet, just mentioned, was due to the exaggerated development of this gland, but no clue was afforded as to the origin of the ascidium. It was not practicable to examine the arrangement of the vascular bundles in the rachis.

Additional labella in Phaius.—A flower of Phaius grandiflorus was found in the same condition as the Catasetum, mentioned at pp. 291 and 382.

Tubular stem.—A species of Sempervivum, exhibited by Mr. Salter, of Hammersmith, at one of the summer exhibitions of flowers at the Royal Horticultural Society in 1868, under the name of S. Bollei, deserves notice from its bearing on the question of such structures as the calyx-tubes, the hip of the rose and such like, see pp. 394, 482. In this plant the leaves appeared to be arranged some on the outside, others on the inside, of an erect hollow cylinder, some six inches in height. The oldest leaves were outside, the youngest within, so that the appearance presented was as if the summit of the axis had been pushed or drawn in, much as the finger of a tight glove might be invaginated in withdrawing it from the hand.

The plant in question thus furnishes an actual illustration of the supposititious case mentioned at p. 482.

Double flowers, see pp. 499, et seq.—The following species may be added to those already recorded: Lychnis coronaria, Hibiscus mutabilis, Lotus major, Pisum sativum, Godetia sp., Ipomœa purpurea, Convolvulus minor, Heliotropium peruvianum, Trillium grandiflorum, and Phaius grandiflorus.

INDEX TO SUBJECTS.

B.

C.

D.