1900] Bissell, — Abnormal flowers in Leonurus Cardiaca 223 
the presence or absence of pubescence. And furthermore, throughout 
the island the black spruce is attacked by a species of Peridermium, 
which forms large compact witches' brooms that are very conspicuous 
on account of their pale yellow color, and yet the white spruce is 
never affected by the fungus. Why the fungous parasite should dis- 
criminate between two host species resembling each other so closely 
in every prominent character, while the spermophytic parasite does 
not, seems a curious matter, beyond explanation. 
PuRDUE UNIVERSITY. 
ABNORMAL FLOWERS IN LEONURUS CARDIACA. 
C. H.-BISBELL, 
Last summer, in looking over a colony of the common “ Mother- 
wort," growing by the roadside, I noticed several plants of unusual 
appearance. Examination showed that the peculiar aspect of these 
plants was due to a variation in the flowers, and that these presented 
an interesting transformation by which the stamens are changed to 
leaves (phyllody) and the corolla becomes less irregular (peloria). 
Both the form and color of the corolla were abnormal. In place of 
the usual arched upper lip, capped by a conspicuous tuft of white wool, 
was a shorter, entire, somewhat lanceolate lobe. The lower lip was 
also smaller than usual and provided with pointed lateral lobes. The 
color was paler than üsualand had a greenish tint. The most con- 
spicuous variation, however, was in the anthers, these being changed 
into leaf-like, green appendages. 
In looking up the literature of this species with special reference 
to its teratology, I find several anomalies described, but none which 
exactly covers this case. For instance, Freyhold' states that small 
leafy tufts are sometimes formed between the calyx and corolla in 
this species, although he does not record a change in the stamens. 
A case of peloria in Z. Cardiaca, L., has been described by J. Pey- 
ritsch, and illustrated by plate. His figures show a calyx with six 
unequal teeth, a corolla with six short, rounded equal lobes and six 
stamens with perfect anthers. Peloria is shown only in the upper 
flowers of his plant, the lower being of the usual form. 
` Freyhold, Beiträge zur Pelorienkunde, 3-14; Strasburg, 1875. 
2 Denkschr. der k. k. Acad. der Wissensch. (Mathem. Cl.) xxxviii. Abt. 2, 
134-148, t. 5; Vienna, 1878. 
