Vegetable Teratology Part 20

Diplotaxis Flower, Pistil, calyx inflorescence and corolla.

Capsella Capparidaceae Cleome Flower-bud Sepals.

Resedaceae *Reseda Ditto Ditto.

Caryophyllaceae Arenaria Branch Ditto.

Agrostemma Leaf-bud Ditto.

*Lychnis Ditto Stellaria Ditto Silene Ditto *Gypsophila Ditto Ditto Sepals and stamens.

*Dianthus! Ditto Ditto Sepals.

Dianthus! Ditto Inflorescence Petals and stamens.

Cucubalus Sepals Saponaria! Sepals and petals.

Malvaceae Alcea Flower-bud Stamen.

Aurantiaceae Citrus! Ditto Ditto.

Rutaceae Dictamnus! Ditto Pistil leafy.

Tropaeolaceae Tropaeolum! Ditto Petals.

Celastraceae Celastrus Ditto Sepals.

Leguminosae *Melilotus! Inflorescence Sepals and petals.

Medicago Flower-bud Sepals.

Coronilla Ditto Ditto.

Trifolium! Ditto Second carpel Pistil.

axillary to first Melilotus! Ditto Ditto Trifolium! Flower-bud Sepals and petals.

Rosaceae Pyrus! Fruit? Fruit?

Cerasus! Flower-bud Petals and stamens.

Potentilla! Ditto Leafy carpels.

Crataegus! Ditto Petals.

*Rosa! Ditto Ditto Sepals, petals, stamens and pistil.

Myrtaceae Lecythis Ditto Fruit?

Tetragoniaceae Tetragonia? Ditto Ditto.

Cactaceae Opuntia! Fruit-like Tufts of spines.

branch Pereskia Ditto Sepals?

Echinocactus Ditto Ditto.

Philadelphaceae Philadelphus Ditto Sepals.

Umbelliferae *Athamanta Ditto Calyx.

*Daucus! Ditto Calyx and pistil.

Bupleurum Ditto Calyx and pistil.

Torilis Ditto Calyx and pistil.

Apium Flower-bud Calyx and pistil.

Pastinaca Ditto Ditto ditto.

Heracleum! Ditto Ditto ditto.

Angelica! Umbel Ditto ditto.

Campanulaceae *Campanula! Branch Sepals.

Prismatocarpus Ditto Fruit Sepals, &c.

Gentianaceae Gentiana! Flower-bud Sepals.

Convolvulaceae *Convolvulus! Ditto Outer calyx.

Solanaceae Solanum! Ditto Sepals.

Solanum Tubers Sepals and petals.

Scrophulariaceae *Digitalis! Ditto Petals, &c.

Veronica Raceme Calyx.

Primulaceae Anagallis! Branch Ditto Petals.

Primula Ditto Petals and carpels.

Polygonaceae Rumex Ditto Sepals.

Santalaceae Thesium Leaf-bud In place of stamens and pistils, both absent.

Euphorbiaceae? Euphorbia? Ditto Outer bracts?

Orchidaceae Orchis! Flower-bud Perianth.

Amaryllidaceae Leucoium Ditto Ditto.

Iridaceae Iris Ditto Pistil.

Liliaceae Herreria Ditto Sepals.

Hyacinthus Flower and Perianth.

raceme Convallaria Flower-bud Ditto.

Allium Ditto Ditto.

Cyperaceae Carex Inflorescence Utricle.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 67.--Proliferous Rose. Calyx leafy; petals normal, some reflexed; stamens and pistil absent; in their places a branch with leaves and flowers.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 68.--Rose exhibiting median, axillary, lateral, floral, and leafy prolification in same flower.]

=Complicated prolification.=--From what has been before stated it may be seen that prolification of two or more kinds may coexist in the same flower. Mixed leafy and floral prolification is not unfrequent in proliferous roses, where a shoot is, as it were, prolonged through the centre of the original flower and terminated by a second flower, or even by a cl.u.s.ter, as is well shown in the accompanying figure (fig.

67). Median and axillary prolification, also, not unfrequently coexist in the same flower; thus, in a proliferous rose forwarded to me by Mr.

W. Thomson (fig. 68), the following changes were observed:--the swollen portion below the calyx, the "hip," was entirely absent; the sepals were leaf-like in aspect, the petals unaffected; above the petals the axis was prolonged for a short distance and then bore a circlet of miniature, sessile roses, dest.i.tute, indeed, of calyx, but provided with numerous petals, stamens, and pistils. Above these lateral flowers, the prolonged axis bore a number of scales in many rows. The scales were in their turn surmounted by a whorl of five perfect leaves, beyond which, again, the axis was prolonged into a leafy shoot terminated by a flower bud, the whole const.i.tuting a remarkably complicated admixture of elements belonging to the flower, the bud, the inflorescence, and the leafshoot.[143]

Proliferous flowers of Orchids also occasionally present great complexity in the arrangement of their parts. An instance of this kind was described by myself from specimens furnished by Dr. Moore, of Glasnevin, in the 'Journal of the Linnean Society,' vol. ix, p. 349, tabs. x, xi, and from which the following summary is extracted:

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 69.--Proliferous Orchis. Diagram showing the arrangement of the several organs in the seven outer circles of the flower. Each whorl is numbered, and the position of the axillary buds shown by the small circles.]

The primary flowers were composed of five distinct whorls, and of at least two others less perfectly developed. These primary flowers did not give rise to median formations, but they produced secondary buds in the axils of the segments of the perianth. These latter buds were themselves the subject of tertiary prolification of both kinds, median and axillary. The tertiary median growths, like the primary flower, did not develop median buds, but only lateral ones--quaternary axillary prolification.

The accompanying diagrams are intended to show the plan of arrangement in these flowers. Fig. 69 shows the disposition of parts in the primary flower and the situation of the axillary buds. Fig. 70 shows the primary flower without any central prolongation, but giving off axillary buds, two of which are shown in the diagram, 2, 2; these are, each of them, the subject of both median, 3, 3, and axillary prolification, 4', 4'.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 70.--Diagram to explain the construction of the double-flowered _Orchis_.

1. The primary flower, with no median bud, the position of which, had it been present, is shown by the dotted line.

2. Two axillary buds proceeding from 1, and themselves giving origin to

3, 3. Median buds, and 3', 3', axillary buds.

4' 4'. Axillary buds, proceeding from 3. No median bud is produced from 3; its situation, had it been present, is indicated by the dotted line.]

In _Narcissus major_ a similar combination of both forms of prolification exists, as described by Morren.[144]

On the general subject of Prolification in flowers, in addition to the authorities already cited, the reader may refer to the following among many others:

Linnaeus, 'Prolepsis,' ---- vi et vii. Goethe, 'Versuch.

Metamorph.,' cap. xv and xvi ---- 103-106. Moquin-Tandon,' El.

Ter. Veg.,' p. 362, &c. Engelmann, 'De Antholys.,' ---- 52-62, &c. Cramer, 'Bildungsabweichungen,' &c. _Orchidaceae_, _Umbelliferae_, _Compositae_, _Leguminosae_, _Primulaceae_, _Ranunculaceae_. Fleischer, 'Missbild. Cultur Gewachs.'

Schlechtendal, 'Linnaea,' xv, p. 408, _Rosa_. 'Bot. Zeit.' vol.

xx, 1862, p. 382, _Cyclamen_. 'Bot. Zeit.,' vol. xx, p. 301, _Asphodelus_; et _Lilium_. Seringe, 'Bull. Bot.,' i, t. xi, f.

7, 8, _Arabis_, _Diplotaxis_. Clos, 'Mem. Acad. Toulouse,' 5th ser., 1862, _Papaver_. Wigand, 'Flora,' 1856, p. 716, _Hypochaeris_; et 'Bot. Untersuch.,' p. 19. Buchenau,'

Flora,' 1857, p. 295, _Reseda_. Roeper, 'Bot. Zeit.,' 1852, p.

427, _Orchis_. Presl., 'Linnaea,' vi, p. 599, tab. ix, figs.

5-8, _Sisymbrium_, Vrolik., 'Flora,' 1846, p. 97, t. i et ii, id. 1844, t. i, _Digitalis_. See also Schlechtendal, 'Bot.

Zeit.,' vol. ix, 1851, p. 579. Klinsmann, 'Linnaea,' x, p. 604, t. v, _Hesperis_. f.u.c.kel, 'Flora,' 1848, p. 609. _Melilotus_.