' -. 



" ■ . 5 



CONTRIBUTION TO THE TERATOLOGY OF THE GENUS DATURA. 



419 



Contribution to the Teratology o£ the Genus Datura L. 



By John Bapt. db Toni, For.M.L.S., F.K.M.S, 



(rLATE 35.) 



Many 



[Read 17tli February, 1921.] 



examples o£ monstrosities und anomalies in tbo spocies of tlio 

 Solanaceous genus Datura L. are described in the ordinary text-books of 

 Teratology *, and it is known that some species— namely, Datura arhcrea L., 

 D. eeratocaula Jacq., D, cMorantha Hook., ./>. cornlgera Hook., D.fast 



D. Kniihtii hort., D 



« ^ f 



Desf. (=/ 



L.) 



'S 



how a tendency to 



produce more or less abnormal double flowers, a peculiar tendency which 

 can bo explained in various ways, according to Masters : by pleiotaxy of the 

 corolla, or by a series of confluent petalodio stamens, or by 

 growth on the outside of the corolla. 



d 



Other species, as D 



D 



D. quercifolia H. 



malities, particularly in the development of the corolla or of the andrcoclum 



and gyuDOcium ; 



these have been illustrated in the works of Wydler, 



A. P. do Candolle, Jaeger, Clos, Schlechtendal, Dedecek, 



God 



and 



t 



Dat 



In the past year I have discovered some cases of monstrosities which are 



quite new for the genus , . .. _ 



this matter, Prof. 0. Penzig, was so kind as to attest in a personal letter t- 

 Tn fliA l^nfiiTiifiiil Garden at Modena a specimen of the common Datura 



hns flnvv<M-ed irreffularlv. The first flowers in the lower 



) 



reoion of the t)lant were normally developed and reached nmturlty, givin 



(T 



r 



ise to perfect capsules containing numerous fertile seeds ; on the contrary, 

 the upper and latest (in October) developed floral buds have given rise to an 

 unusual and very strange form. The calyx, which in this species commonly 

 assumes an elongated tubular— almost pentagonal— prismatic form, appears 

 in the monstrous flower as if formed by the fusion of 4 or 5 more or less 



Masters, M. T., ''Vegetable Teratology, an Account of the principal Deviations from 

 the usual Construction of Flants," London, 1809 j Penzig, 0., « Pflanzen-Teratologie 



systematisch georduet,'' vol. ii., Genua, 1894, 



t Penzig, O., op. cit., p. 176. For other monstrogjtios (pistillody) o^ Datura Stramonium 

 h. see Savelli R., " Contribuzione alio studio doUa pistillodia ovulars " (xlmiali di Botanica, 



vol. XV. Fasc. i.), Eome, 1920. 



\ One similar case is only but briefly described for Datura Stramoninm var. Tatula by 

 C. xMassalongo, " Nuova Miscellanea Teratologica " (Nuovo Giornalo Botauict> ItuUano, N,S., 

 vol. iii. N. 2, Fireuze, 1896), 



