Vegetable Teratology. Maxwell T. Masters

sp. pl.

       Polemonium.

       Phlox!

       Cobœa!

       Rhododendron!

       Erica!

       Rhodora.

       Azalea!

       Compositæ! sp. pl.

       Lonicera!

       Convolvulus!

       Pharbitis.

       Antirrhinum!

       Verbascum!

       Mimulus.

       Digitalis!

       Orobanche.

       Solanum.

       Nicotiana.

       Gentiana!

       Anagallis.

       Primula!

       Lamium!

       Convallaria!

       Lilium!

       Colchicum!

       &c. &c.

      This list does not include those very numerous cases in which this change is associated with more or less complete frondescence or leafy condition of the petals.

      Dialysis of the stamens.—A similar isolation of the stamens occurs occasionally; for instance, when Mallows (Malvaceæ) become double, one of the first stages of the process is often the disjunction of the stamens, and a similar dissociation occurs in Leguminosæ and Compositæ, as in Tragopogon, as related by Kirschleger, in Hypochæris by Wigand, and in Coreopsis by Schlechtendal.

Dialysis of the carpels.—In the case of the carpels this disunion is more frequent than in the stamens. M. Seringe[78] figures carpels of Diplotaxis tenuifolia more or less completely separated one from the other; indeed, this separation is very common amongst Cruciferæ and Umbelliferæ.

Generally speaking, the disunion is complicated with frondescence—but not always so. I have, in my herbarium, specimens of Convallaria majalis, Commelyna sp., and of Lilium auratum, in all of which the three carpels are completely disjoined, and present three styles, three stigmas, &c., without any other change. Engelmann[79] speaks of three classes of this malformation. 1st, that in which the carpels separate one from the other without opening, as in the lily just alluded to; 2nd, that in which the ovary remains closed, but loses its internal partitions, as in a case mentioned by Moquin in Stachys sylvatica, in which, owing to imperfect disjunction, the two bi-lobed carpels were changed into a nearly one-celled capsule;[80] and 3rd, those cases in which the carpels are open and foliaceous.

      Fig. 32.—Anomalous form of orange.

Disjunction is more frequent in dry fruits than in fleshy ones. In the latter instance it happens at an early stage of existence, and the pericarp becomes more or less leafy, losing its faculty of becoming fleshy, as in Prunus Cerasus and Amygdalus persica; nevertheless, fleshy fruits sometimes become disunited. I have seen a case similar to that mentioned by M. Alphonse de Candolle in Solanum esculentum, in which the pericarp became ruptured, and the placentas protruded. A like occurrence has also been observed in a species of Melastoma.[81] This is analogous to what happens in Caulophyllum and Slateria. Disjunction of the carpels is not rare in oranges. Sometimes this takes place regularly, at other times irregularly; occasionally in such a manner as to give the appearance of a hand and fingers to the fruit. Of one of these, Ferrari,[82] in the curious volume below cited, speaks thus: "Arbor profusissima, quia dat utraque manu; imo quia vere manus dat in poma conversis; utque magis munifica sit poma ipsa convertit in manus."

M. Duchartre[83] mentions a semi-double flower of orange with eight to ten distinct carpels in a whorl, and occasionally several whorls one above another. De Candolle[84] considers the rind of the orange as a production from the receptacle, and this view is confirmed by the specimens of Duchartre, in which the carpels were quite naked or had a common envelope truncated, and open above to allow of the passage of the styles and stigmas.

      Fig. 33.—Orange. Showing disjunction of carpels, after Maout.

      Fig. 34.—Section of orange shown in fig. 33 after Maout.

      It frequently happens in conjunction with this separation of the carpels one from the other, that a lack of union manifests itself between the margins of the individual carpels themselves. Very numerous cases of this kind have been recorded, and the double tulips of gardens may be referred to as showing this condition very frequently. In connection with this detachment of the carpels, a change in the mode of placentation is often to be observed, or two or more kinds may be seen in the same pistil, as in double-flowered saponarias, many Crucifers, &c., as alluded to under the head of displacements of the placenta.

      FOOTNOTES:

       Table of Contents

      [75] Loc. cit., p. 298.

      [76] Masters in Seemann's 'Journal of Botany,' 1867, p. 158.

[77] Bull. Soc. Bot. France,' t. xiii, 1866, p. 234.

[78] 'Bull. Bot.,' pl. i, figs. 8–12.

[79] 'De Anthol.,' p. 37.

[80] Moquin, loc. cit., p. 305.

[81] 'Neue Denkschr. der Allg. Schweiz. Gesell.,' band v, pl. ii. p. 5.

[82] 'Hesperides,' auctore Ferrario. Rome, 1646, fig. 415, pp. 213 and 215. See also Michel, 'Traité du Citronnier.'

[83] 'Ann. des Science Nat.,' 3rd series, 1844, vol. i, p. 294.

[84] 'Org. Véget.,' vol. ii., p. 41.

      CHAPTER III.

       SOLUTION.