126 Rhodora [*'»■ 



AN UNUSUAL FORM OF HABENAR1A CLAVELLATA 



Edward A. Fames. 



(Plate 131.) 



To those of us having an acquaintance with some particular plant 

 family, it is always pleasing to detect a strange feature or some 

 unusual development in a member of that group. Any departure 

 from type, in color, form or arrangement of the parts, is always 

 interesting and receives close attention. I believe such abnormal- 

 ities as these are caused by some temporary, accidental influence. 

 They seldom occur in numbers, among plants in their natural environ- 

 ment, and usually they are quickly submerged and lost in succeeding 

 generations. 



However, there are depatures from type which occasionally prove 

 to be of more importance. If the new character or feature is persist- 

 ent and becomes established, and the plant proves capable of repro- 

 ducing this new character, a true variety has been established. 



Having devoted considerable attention to the orchid family for 

 .a number of years, it is but natural that in the course of many days 

 in the field in search of my favorite plants, I have happened upon a 

 number of cases of temporary variation from normal. 1 have seen 

 Arethusa btilbosa with its blossom pure snowy white instead of the 

 usual deep magenta color; I have seen Microstylis monophyUa with 

 two apparently normal leaves instead of the single leaf from which 

 it receives its specific character and I have seen Listcra ausi rails in 

 one colony where its colorless lip was almost transparent, and in 

 another colony where the rich mahogany-red color of the lip made the 

 plants comparatively conspicuous. Such abnormalities, of which 

 the foregoing are but examples, are well known among botanists of 

 course, and are mentioned here only to illustrate the kind of varia- 

 tion which seems to involve no fundamental change in the plant. 

 They are analogous perhaps, to cases of albinism, or cases of more 

 than the usual number of fingers, in human beings. 



But what can be said ahout a variation from normal, in a certain 

 orchid which I came upon early last August, nearDamariscotta, Maine, 

 in which the abnormality took the form of a new shape and structure 

 of one of the parts of the blossom, and was found to be typical of a con- 

 siderable portion of all the plants throughout a large area? In this 



