Vegetable Teratology Part 36

Nigella damascena.

Adonis autumnalis.

Cheiranthus Cheiri!

Nasturtium, sp.

Sisymbrium officinale!

Bra.s.sica napus!

* olcracea!

*Alliaria officinalis!

Sinapis arvensis!

Turritis, sp.

Thlaspi arvense.

Erucastrum Pollichii.

Stellaria media.

*Reseda lutea.

Drosera intermedia.

Agrostemma Githago.

Stellaria media.

Triumfetta, sp.!

Tropaeolum majus!

Dictamnus albus.

Fraxinella!

Caram carui Pastinaca sativa.

Torilis anthriscus.

Thysselinum pal.u.s.tre.

Epilobium pal.u.s.tre.

Rosa, sp.

Fragaria alpina.

*Trifolium repens!

Medicago maculata.

Desmodium canadense.

Melilotus macrorhiza.

Lonicera, sp.

Gaillardia!

Crepis, sp.

Phyteuma odorata.

Symphytum Zeyheri.

* officinale.

Stachys sylvatica.

Anagallia arvensis.

phoenicea.

Lysimachia ephemerum.

*Primula sinensis!

Auricula.

praenitens.

Gilia glomeruliflora.

Rumex arifolius.

scutatus.

Salix capraea.

The following list of publications relating to ovular malformations is copied from A. Braun, 'Ueber Polyembryonie und Keimung von Caelobogyne'

(Appendix),[279] to which are also added some others not alluded to by that author and not specially referred to in the preceding pages:

Jaeger, 'Missbilld. d. Gewachse,' p. 78, 79, f. 47. Roeper, 'Enum. Euphorb.,' 1824. p. 45, _Delphinium_.--Schimper, 'Flora,' 1829, pp. 437-8, et 'Mag. fur Pharmacie de Geiger,'

1829-30, pl. iv-vi, text wanting, _Primula_, _Reseda_, _Cheiranthus_.--Engelmann, 'De Antholysi,' 1832.--Valentin, 'Act. Acad. Nat. Cur.,' 1839, p. 225, _Lysimachia_.--Unger, 'Act. Acad. Nat. Cur.,' xxii, 11, 1850, p. 543, t. 5 B, _Primula_.--'Flora (B. Z.)', 1842, p. 369, t. ii, _Trifolium_.--Brongniart, 'Ann. Sc. Nat.,' 1834, ii, p. 308; also 'Archives Mus. d'Hist. Nat.,' 1844, t. iv, p. 43, pl. iv, v, _Primula_.--Reissek, 'Linnaea,' xvii, 1843, _Alliaria_.--Wydler, 'Denkshrift. d. Regensb. Bot. Gesell.,'

1855, iv, s. 77, t. vii, _Alliaria_.--Wigand. 'Grundlegung der Pflanzen Teratol.,' 1850, p. 39, _Turritis_.--Wigand, 'Bot.

Untersuchungen,' 1853, p. 23, _Rosa_, _Turritis_, _Crepis_.--Germain de St. Pierre, 'L'lnst.i.tut,' 1853, n. 1051, p. 351.--Rossmann, "Entwicklung der Eiknospen aus dem Fruchtblatte," &c., 'Flora,' 1855, pp. 647 and 705.--Dareste, 'Ann. Sc. Nat.,' 1842, p. 220, _Delphinium_.--Fresenius, 'Mus.

Senkenb.,' ii, p. 39, t. iv, f. 9, _Primula_.--Schultz, 'Flora o. d. Bot. Zeit.,' 1834, xvii, p. 121, _Nasturtium_.--Seringe and Heyland, 'Bull. Bot.,' 1-7, _Diplotaxis_.--Clos, 'Mem.

Acad. Toulouse,' vi, 1862, _Delphinium_.--Morren, C., 'Bull.

Acad. Belg.,' xix, part ii, p. 519, _Primula_.--Caspary, 'Schrift. d. Physik. OEk. Gesell. zu Konigsberg,' band ii, p.

51, tabs. ii, iii. Fleischer, 'Ueber Missbildungen Verschiedener Cultur Pflanzen.,' &c., Esslingen, 1862. Cramer, 'Bildungsabweich,' p. 68, &c. &c., _Trifolium._--Moquin-Tandon, 'El. Terat. Veg.,' p. 206, _Cortusa_.--Guillard, 'Bull. Soc.

Bot. Fr.,' 1857, vol. iv, p. 761, _Stellaria_.--Moelkenboer, 'Tijdschrift v. Natuurl. Geschied.,' 1843, p. 355, t. vi, vii, _Primula_.--Van Tieghem, 'Bull. Soc. Bot. Fr.,' 1865, p, 411, _Tropaeolum_.

=Phyllody in accessory organs.=--In addition to the ordinary organs of the plant, what are termed the accessory organs, such as hairs, spines, &c., sometimes become foliaceous. It is not to be wondered at that spines, when they represent the framework of a leaf, become sometimes clothed with cellular tissue, and thus become indeed true leaves. This happens occasionally in _Berberis;_ a similar thing occurs in the stipules of some _Leguminosae_; the scales of some begonias; the tendrils of _Bignonia_, _Cobaea_, &c.

The presence of two small green laminae on the outer side of the two posterior stamens in _Antirrhinum majus_ has also been met with. The advent.i.tious organs appeared as if they were developments from the thalamus--a kind of foliaceous disc, in fact.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 149.--Leafy petal of _Epilobium_.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 150.--Chloranthy, &c. _Epilobium hirsutum_.]

=Chloranthy.=--The term phyllomorphy is applied to the individual parts of the flower which a.s.sume the form and appearance of leaves. By chloranthy it is to be understood that all, or the great majority of the organs of the flower a.s.sume these conditions.[280] In chloranthy, as here defined, there is no unusual number of buds, as there is in prolification, but the appearance of the flower-bud is so changed as to make it resemble more closely a leaf-bud than a flower-bud. There is not necessarily any increase in the number, or any alteration in the position of the buds, but the form and appearance of the latter differ from what is usual. Chloranthy, then, is a more complete form of frondescence. Owing to the vagueness with which the word has been applied by various authors, it becomes very difficult to ascertain whether the recorded instances of chloranthy were really ill.u.s.trations of what is here meant by that term, or whether they were cases of mere virescence (green colour, without other perceptible change), or of prolification (formation of advent.i.tious buds). It is, therefore, quite possible that some of the instances to be now mentioned were not strictly cases of chloranthy.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 151.--_a._ Open leafy carpel of "green rose," with two deformed ovules. _b._ Ovule separate. _c._ Primine removed. _d._ Secondine and nucleus, with the bulbous end that projects through the micropyle.]

Seringe[281] has described a malformation in _Diplotaxis tenuifolia_ in which all the floral organs were replaced by sixteen distinct leaflets which had preserved their proper relative position. The _Cruciferae_, of which family the last-named plant is a member, are particularly liable to this malformation, as also are the _Rosaceae_, as will be seen from the following ill.u.s.trations. Roses indeed often exhibit alterations of this kind as the commencement of prolification. There is also in cultivation a rose[282] called the green rose, "Rose bengale a fleurs vertes," in which all the parts of the flower are represented by leaves.

One of the most remarkable features in this plant is, that the carpels have often two ovules on their margins. Now, Payer, in his "Organogenie," has shown that at a certain period of the development of the ordinary rose flower the ovary contains two collateral ovules, of which one becomes in process of time suppressed.[283] _Geum coccineum_ has been found by Wigand with its flowers in this condition.[284]

Lindley[285] figures a very interesting ill.u.s.tration in _Potentilla nepalensis_, in which some of the flowers have their component parts leafy, in others the receptacle lengthens, till in extreme cases the whole of the floral apparatus is represented by a branch bearing a rosette of leaves.

A particular variety of the Alpine strawberry is also described as occasionally subject to this transformation. In these flowers the calyx remains normal, while all the other parts of the flower, even to the coating of the ovule, a.s.sume a leaf-like condition.[286]

Among _Leguminosae_ a partial leafy condition (frondescence), or a more complete degree of the same change, (chloranthy) is not infrequent, particularly in _Trifolium repens_. In this species the changes are so common, so various and important, that they may be alluded to in some little detail. M. Germain de Saint Pierre,[287] in commenting on the frequency with which the flowers of this plant are more or less frondescent, remarks that although all the flowers on one plant may be affected, they are all changed in the same manner, but on different specimens different degrees of transformation are found. In all the corolla and stamens are comparatively little removed from the ordinary form, the calyx and pistil, however, have a particular tendency to a.s.sume a foliar condition. The author just cited arranges the malformations of this plant under three heads, as follows:

1. Calyx-teeth larger than usual, sometimes dentate at the margin; petals more or less regular and disposed to run away from the papilionaceous form; filaments free; anthers normal; carpel transformed into a true leaf with a long stalk provided at the base, with two stipules, terminal leaflet, solitary, green, with no trace of ovules. Sometimes a second carpellary leaf, similar to the first, is formed; in other cases the central axis of the flower is occasionally prolonged into a head of young flowers--median prolification. In some few instances the calyx is not at all altered, but the carpellary leaf is trifoliolate, or even quinquefoliolate, the corolla being then absent. The heads of flowers in this first form have the aspect of little tufts of leaves.

2. Each of the teeth of the calyx is represented by a long stalk, terminated by a single articulated leaflet, the bi-l.a.b.i.ate form of the calyx is still recognisable; the two upper petals are united, the three lower separate; the tube of the calyx is not deformed and seems to be formed of the petioles of the sepals united by their stipules. In this second cla.s.s of cases the corolla is papilionaceous, the filaments free, the carpellary leaf on a long stalk provided with stipules, its blade more or less like the usual carpel, with its margins disunited or more commonly united with the ovules in the interior, sometimes represented by a foliaceous, dentate primine only. In one case the carpel was closed above, gaping below, where it gave origin to several leaflets, the lower ones oval, dentate, like ordinary leaflets, the upper ones merely lanceolate, leafy lobes, representing the primine reduced to a foliaceous condition. Inflorescence--a head with leafy flowers on long stalks, which are longer at the circ.u.mference than in the centre.

3. Calyx-teeth lance-shaped, ac.u.minate; corolla more or less regular, arrested in its development and scarcely exceeding the tube of the calyx within which it is crumpled up; stamens but little changed; carpellary leaf on a short stalk, not exceeding the calyx tube, but the ovarian portion very long, and provided with abortive ovules.

These three groups will be found to include most of the forms under which frondescence of the clover blossoms occurs, but there are, of course, intermediate forms not readily to be grouped under either of the above heads. Such are the cases brought under the notice of the British a.s.sociation at Birmingham in 1849 by Mr. R. Austen, in some of which the petals and stamens even were represented by leaves.

Although, on the whole, chloranthy is most frequent in the families already alluded to, yet it is by no means confined to them, as the examples now to be given amply show. Specimens of _Nymphaea Lotus_ have been seen in which all the parts of the flower, even to the stigmas, were leafy, while the ovules were entirely wanting.

Planchon[288] figures and describes a flower of _Drosera intermedia_ that had pa.s.sed into a chloranthic condition, excepting the calyx, which was unchanged; the petals, like the valves of the ovary, were provided with stipules, and were circinate in vernation.

M. A. Viaud-Grand-Marais[289] records an interesting example of chloranthy, in which the sepals, petals, pistils, and ovules of _Anagallis arvensis_ were all foliaceous. Similar changes have not unfrequently been met with in _Dictamnus Fraxinella_.

M. Germain de Saint Pierre has also recorded the following deviations in the flowers of _Rumex arifolius_ and _R. scutatus_; in these specimens the calyx was normal, the petals large, foliaceous, shaped like the stem-leaves, the stamens were absent, the three carpels fused into a triangular leafy pod, as long again as the perianth, the stigmas normal or wanting, the ovule represented by a thick funicle, terminated by a foliaceous appendage a.n.a.logous to the primine.[290]

In gra.s.ses it frequently happens that the flowers are replaced by leaf-buds; this condition is alluded to elsewhere under the head of viviparous gra.s.ses, but in this place may be mentioned a less degree of change, and which seems to have been a genuine case of chloranthy in _Glyceria fluitans_, the spikelet of which, as observed by Wigand,[291]