14 Rhodora [JANUARY 
instances first to be described seem to me to point to a principle in 
the operation of the plastic forces, which the illustrations adduced in 
the later portion of this paper! tend to confirm as a principle of nor- 
mal evolution. 
AN ANOMALOUS GENTIANA CRINITA. — About September roth, 
1903, Miss F. C. Prince collected at Petersham, Massachusetts, a 
branch of the Fringed Gentian. It bore several blossoms, one of 
which Miss Prince found to be abnormal. The flower was sent to 
the Gray Herbarium, where it was turned over to me for examination 
and remark. The abnormality pertains to the gynoecium alone. 
There are three pistils. One, centrally placed, is normal. The two 
supernumerary ones, somewhat smaller than the first, arise from the 
receptacle. One of them consists of but a single ovuliferous carpel 
— the normal condition is bicarpellary — dilated above to form the 
usual stigma. It is not closed; the ovules are, therefore, exposed. 
The other supernumerary pistil is bicarpellary, but the carpels are 
united to less than half the height of the ovary. One of them bears 
a normal stigma. The other is remarkable in being petaloid — 
though ovuliferous — especially above the point at which the carpels 
cease to be united. The petaloid character is seen not only in the 
texture and veining, but most strikingly in the border of the organ, 
which is fringed in precisely the same manner as are the lobes of the 
corolla. "The correspondence of the fringe of this carpel with that of 
the corolla extends to details of length and shape of segments, and 
relation of the segments to the veins. These facts will be of value 
when we come to consider the significance of the abnormality. 
DROSERA ROTUNDIFOLIA. — Last summer Mr. Fernald sent me 
from Grand River, Gaspé Co., Quebec, a number of live plants of 
the common Sundew. The inflorescences which they bear are few- 
flowered and capitate, and the flowers themselves are quite sterile. 
The perianth, and in many cases the carpels, are aberrant, havirg, 
with little increase in size, taken on approximately the form of the 
foliage leaves of the species. "The glandular tentacles peculiar to the 
genus are present in many instances both on the perianth and on the 
transformed carpels. Sometimes the latter are found to be conjoined 
at the base to form a short tube, representing the normal ovary. 
Above this tube the carpels are dilated, rotund, and tentaculiferous. 
1 Contributions from the Ames Botanical Laboratory, No. 3. 
