VOL. 1.1 Deformed Flowers of Dendroviccon. 47 



Dendromecon is especially abundant on hillsides sloping up from 

 the sea at Encinitas in San Diego County. It is found there three 

 inches or more in diameter sending up numerous slender stems 

 6-10 feet high, often drooping in the manner of the taller of the 

 island specimens, to which the name D. flexile was applied. On 

 these southern slopes it bears flowers of a size and abundance never 



seen in northern forms. 



The early leaves of Dendromecon, succeeding the Imear- acumi- 

 nate cotyledons, have been seldom noticed. In young plants i -6 

 inches hicrh growing in abundance in the loose earth of the steep 

 mountain side at "Cape Horn" above Alta, they were found to be 

 obovate-cuneate in outhne with 3-8 rather deep notches. 



In some localities, especially at Mt. St. Helena and at Encmitas, 

 the flowers of this plant are subject to a very interestmg retrograde 

 metamorphosis. Dense masses of small shoots crowded with depau- 

 perate leaves grow from the ends of the branches, bending them 

 down and appearing from a distance like bunches of mistletoe. The 

 flowers in these clusters are all in some degree deformed and often 

 proHferous. In those found at Mt. St. Helena the sepals, petals 

 and pistil are all more or less leaf-like, but the stamens are 

 petaloid. In those from Encinitas however, all the floral parts re- 

 vert in a greater or less degree to leaves, the axis of the flower is 

 elongated, the sepals becoming two alternate leaves, often separated 

 by a considerable interval; the petals are more nearly approximated; 

 the thickened portion of the axis above bears on its sides the sta- 

 mens in every gradation from nearly perfect polliniferous ones to 

 leaves; above them arise the two often nearly or quite distinct" car- 

 pellary leaves which represent the pistil. The axis is often continued 

 between these last, continuing the growth of the shoot and some- 

 times bearing a second similar flower above. ., , . , 

 These deformities of flowers have long been considered of much 

 value as explaining the mode of formation of the more comp ex 

 organs, and the present one appears to illustrate with a considerable 

 degree of clearness the morphology of simple extrorse quadnlocular 



Stamens. , - i , - 4. 



In this case the leaf is first folded backward with the margins to 



the midrib, the upper surface outward. The first trace of the anther 



is shown by a trough-like groove on the fold nearer the margm than 



the midrib but some distance from either. Although this groove is 



