Vegetable Teratology Part 38

[250] Weber, loc. cit.

[251] Sauter, 'Flora v. Bot. Zeit.,' 1831, p. 11.

[252] 'Descr. et Icon. Plant.' tab. 20.

[253] For references see p. 115; see also to Eichler, 'Excurs.

Morpholog. de format. flor. Gymnosperm.,' in "Mart. Flor. Brasil,"

abstracted in English in 'Natural History Review,' April, 1864.

[254] "Calyx tunc plane non differt a foliis proxime ipsi praecedentibus." Wolff, 'Theor. Gener.,' -- 114. Linn., 'Proleps.,' -- 6.

Goethe, 'Versuch.,' ---- 31-38.

[255] 'Bull. Soc. Bot. France,' vol. viii, 1861, p. 697.

[256] 'Organ. Veget.,' t. i, p. 492, pl. x.x.xii, f. 6.

[257] This distinction between laminar and v.a.g.i.n.al venation is well seen in cases like _Mussaenda_, _Calycophyllum_, or _Dipterocarpus_, where the enlarged calycine segment has a strictly v.a.g.i.n.al arrangement of its veins, very different from that which occurs in the true leaf-blades.

These are cases, therefore, where the sheath of the leaf is unusually enlarged, and are not to be referred, as is often done, to metamorphosis of one or more sepals to perfect leaves. Prolified roses, cherries, &c., furnish frequently parallel cases. With reference to _Mussaenda_, C.

Morren held the view that the petal-like sepal was really a bract adherent to the calyx, and incorporating with itself one of the calycine lobes--"soudee au calice et ayant devoree, en englobant dans sa propre ma.s.se, un lobe calicinal." The Belgian _savant_ considers this somewhat improbable explanation as supported by a case wherein there were five calyx lobes of uniform size, and a detached feather-veined leaf proceeding from the side of the ovary lower down ('Bull. Acad. Belg.,'

xvii, p. 17, _Fuchsia_, p. 169).

[258] In this order _Agrostemma Githago_ offers an ill.u.s.tration of a normally leafy calyx.

[259] 'Bull. Bot.,' i, p. 6.

[260] Wolff's original opinion was that the stamens were equivalent to so many buds placed in the axil of the petals or sepals (see 'Theoria Generationis,' 1759, -- 114)--an opinion which more recently has received the support of Agardh and Endlicher. Wolff himself, however, seems to have abandoned his original notion, for in his memoir, "De formatione intestinorum praecipue tum et de amnio spurio aliisque partibus embryonis gallinacei, nondum visis," &c., in 'Comm. Acad. Petrop.,' xii, p. 403, anno 1766, he considers the stamens as essentially leaves. See also Linn. 'Prolepsis,' -- viii; Goethe, 'Metam.,' -- 46.

[261] Muller (Argov.), in 'Mem. Soc. Phys. et d'Hist. Nat. Genev.,' t.

xvii.

[262] "If we keep in view the observations which have now been made, we shall not fail to recognise the leaf in all seed-vessels, notwithstanding their manifold forms, their variable structure, and different combinations."--(Goethe, 'Metam.,' -- 78.) Wolff, 'N. Comm.

Acad. Petrop.,' 1766, xii, p. 403, expresses precisely the same opinion as to the nature of the seed-vessel.

[263] 'El. Terat. Veg.,' p. 205.

[264] 'Ann. Sc. Nat.,' 4th series, vol. ix, p. 209.

[265] 'Adansonia,' iv, p. 70. A similar deviation has been observed by M. van Tieghem in the ovary of _Tropaeolum majus_, 'Bull. Soc. Bot. Fr.,'

1865, p. 411.

[266] Planchon et Mares, 'Ann. Sc. Nat.,' ser. 5, vol. vi, 1866, p. 228, tab. xii.

[267] 'Act. Acad. Nat. Cur.,' 22, 11. 1850, p. 543, t. v, vi.

[268] 'Neue Denkschrift der allg. Schweiz. Gesellsch.,' band v. p. 9, tab. 3, 4.

[269] 'Ann. Sc. Nat.,' 2 ser., vol. i, p. 308, pl. ix, c.

[270] 'Adansonia,' vol. iv, pp. 159, 171.

[271] 'Bildungsabweichungen,' &c., tab. iv, figs. 1, 2, 21, 28, 29, &c.

[272] 'Bull. Soc. Bot. France,' viii, p. 395.

[273] 'Notulae,' p. 125, atlas, pl. x.x.xv; and 'Journals of Travels,'

1847, p. 475, _Lonicera_.

[274] 'Ann. Science Nat.,' 3rd ser., vol. ix, p. 86, tabs. 5, 6.

[275] 'Comptes Rendus,' vol. xviii, March 25th, 1864, and 'Ann. Sc.

Nat.,' 3 ser., vol. ii, p. 32.

[276] 'Mem. Acad. Sc. Toulous.,' ser. 5, vol. iii.

[277] 'Bildungsabweich. Pflanz. Famil.,' p. 89, tab. xi.

[278] 'Bull. Soc. Bot. Fr.,' 1865, p. 411.

[279] Translated in 'Ann. Sc. Nat.,' 4th series, t. xiv, p. 24.

[280] The calyx is not unfrequently excepted.

[281] 'Bull. Bot.,' t. i, p. 6.

[282] Lindley, 'Theor. Horticult.,' ed. 2, p. 84, f. 17.

[283] Gris, 'Bull. Soc. Bot. Fr.,' 1858, vol. v, p. 261, and 'Ann. Sc.

Nat.,' ser. 4, vol. ix, p. 80. Planchon, 'Flore des Serres,' vol. i, 1856, p. 129.

[284] 'Flora,' 1856, p. 711.

[285] 'Theory of Horticult.,' ed. 2, p. 90, f. 25.

[286] As considerable interest attaches to the "Plymouth strawberry,"

and very little is known of it in this country, or on the continent, the author gladly avails himself of this opportunity of inserting an account of it, for which he is indebted to the kindness of Dr. Robert Hogg.--The Plymouth Strawberry (_Fragaria vesca fructu hispido_) is a sort of botanical Dodo upon which many have written, and which few have seen.

Many years have elapsed since it was first discovered; and although a century and a half have pa.s.sed since there was any evidence of its existence, it serves still as an ill.u.s.tration for students in morphology of one of those strange abnormal structures with which the vegetable kingdom abounds.

It is to old John Tradescant we are indebted for the earliest record of this plant. Johnson, in his edition of 'Gerard,' says; "Mr. John Tradescant hath told me that he was the first that tooke notice of this strawberry, and that in a woman's garden at Plimouth, whose daughter had gathered and set the roots in her garden, in stead of the common strawberry; but she, finding the fruit not to answer her expectation, intended to throw it away; which labour he spared her in taking it and bestowing it among the louers of such varieties, in whose garden it is yet preserved." Doubtless one of those "lovers" was his friend John Parkinson, who, in the year 1629, thus wrote concerning it: "One strawberry more I promised to shew you, which, although it be a wilde kinde, and of no vse for meate, yet I would not let this discourse pa.s.se without giuing you the knowledge of it. It is in leafe much like vnto the ordinary, but differeth in that the flower, if it haue any, is greene, or rather it beareth a small head of greene leaues, many set thicke together like vnto a double ruffe, in the midst whereof standeth the fruit, which, when it is ripe, sheweth to be soft and somewhat reddish, like vnto a strawberry, but with many small harmlesse p.r.i.c.kles on them which may be eaten and chewed in the mouth without any maner of offence and is somewhat pleasant as a strawberry; it is no great bearer, but those it doth beare, are set at the toppes of the stalks close together, pleasant to behold, and fit for a gentlewoman to weare on her arme, &c., as a rairitie in stead of a flower."

Merret, in his 'Pinax.' published in 1667, says he found it growing in the woods of Hyde Park and Hampstead, and Zanoni was the first to figure it (with the exception of Parkinson's rude woodcut) in his 'Istoria Botanica,' published in 1675. It is mentioned by Morison and also by Ray, the latter of whom inserts it in his Synopsis, but without any habitat; though in his 'Historia Plantarum' he says: "Cantabrigiae in horto per aliquot annos colui." From this time henceforth the Plymouth strawberry has become a botanical Dodo, nothing more having been seen or heard of it except the mere record of the name. In 1766, M. d.u.c.h.esne informed the world of the generosity of "M. Monti, Docteur de Philosophie et de Medecine a Boulogne en Italie," who divided with him a dried specimen taken from his own herbarium, "Ce present pretieux m'ote toute incert.i.tude sur la nature de ce Fraisier et sur ses caracteres monstrueux. Il paroit ne pas avoir aujourd'hui plus d'existence."

[287] 'Bull. Soc. Bot. France,' 1856, vol. iii, p. 477.

[288] 'Ann. Sc. Nat.,' 3 ser., vol. ix, p. 86, tabs. v, vi.

[289] 'Bull. Soc. Bot. France,' vol. viii, 1861, p. 695.

[290] Ibid., vol. iii, 1856, p. 475.