OF DIGITALIS PURPUREA AND SOLANUM TUBEROSUM. 217 
comes into contact with the reflected stamens of the flower 
below.” 
In the drawing I have made of the upper part of the raceme, 
it will be seen how the flowers hang nearly vertically, instead of 
being oblique in their position as in the normal fórm ; while the 
tube is deeply laciniated, forming a fringe or ribbon-like strips, 
some of which are antheriferous, others not. The four proper 
stamens of the flower can be recognized by the usual bend at the 
base of the filament, but assume a nearly horizontal position. 
The calyx and pistil remain of the normal character. 
Staminody ofthe corolla is far from being common amongst 
plants. Dr. Masters records only about a dozen instances as 
known, in his work on Vegetable Teratology, amongst which he 
says, “ Moquin cites from Chamisso Digitalis purpurea as having 
presented this change ”*. 
Staminody of the petals of the Potato has been twice recorded. 
A specimen before me was forwarded to Dr. M. T. Masters in 
1870, by Mr. Marshall, of Ely, who briefly described it with a 
figure in ‘The Gardeners’ Chronicle? (1870), p. 1021. I have 
adjoined a few details (Plate XXXIII. figs. 7-11) not given by 
that botanist, to show the nature of the staminiferous petals. 
On a careful examination of the dried flower, I find the calyx to 
be normal. The corolla is gamopetalous, there being a short 
tube; but the lobes are more or less perfectly antheriferous. 
Figs. 9, 10, 11 will show how the lobes have assumed a cochlear 
form with the edges thickened, and more or less converted into 
anthers. In some only, as in fig. 9, was there pollen; but, 
judging from the appearance in the dried state, the grains were 
apparently abortive. 
The entire flower presented the appearance as shown by fig. 7. 
The stamens were normal in form, and occupied the usual posi- 
tion upon the coherent tube of the corolla, dehiscing as usual by 
a terminal pore with a longitudinal slit below (fig. 8). Ex- 
cepting fig. 7, which is the natural size, the rest (figs. 5-11) 
. are enlarged. 
lt has been suggested that there is some reason for thinking 
that a race of potatoes of the kind herein described might be 
* Clos, ‘Tératologie taxinomique, p. 28, records :—“ Digitalis purpurea a 
les pétales remplacées par les étamines." Possibly Moquin refers to this. 
LINN. JOURN.—BOTANY, VOL. XIX. T 
