BULLETIN 
OF THE 
TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB 
Vol- X.l New York, January, 1883. [No. I. 
Leafy Berries in Mitchellarepens. 
By William R. Dudley. 
(Plate XXVI.) 
4 
Several suggestive variations, more or less teratological, have 
come under the writer's observations during a few years past, and one 
is here offered to the readers of the Bulletin which seems to follow 
a line of departure apparently of rare occurrence. It is the adna- 
tion, more or less complete, occurring between the berries and the 
true leaves of Mitchella repens^ L. 
By reference^^to the accompanying plate, it will be seen that a 
series is made out showing all conditions, from the partial adnation 
of one leaf-petiole (Fig, 2) to the complete envelopment of the 
berry by the expanded bases of both leaf-petioles (Fig. 5). There 
were twelve or fifteen excellent specimens in the writer's possession 
at the time the drawings were made (Nov., 1881), representing all 
grades of this union, between those shown in Figs, 2 and 5. There 
is, therefore, no mistake as to the true origin of these foliar organs. 
The drawings need little explanation; but there are a few char- 
acters not readily made out from a black and white drawing. First, 
the blades of these adnate leaves were, in all cases, of the usual 
green color, or only a little paler. Second, in Fig. 2, the leaf on the 
left seems to arise from the side of the berry; but, from the apparent 
base of the petiole, the true base is plainly seen to expand, forming 
a broad convex covering, clasping and organically combined with the 
lower part of the berry itself. 
The clasping base in this case, and in those in Figs. 3, 4 and 5, 
has always the ordinary scarlet color of the berry, and, in every way 
simulates its surface. Fven the base of the petiole of the leaf on the 
right in Fig. 2 was tinged with red on account of its proximity to 
the red fruit. Third, it is well known that the Mitchella flowers are 
usually twin, producing ly^o corollas, etc., but only one berry, which 
is inferior. The two calyx-scars are seen in Fig. 2, but the berry is 
so distorted, apparently by the diversion of the sap-currents into the 
detached leaf, that the calyx on the right is much below its usual 
position. Again, in Fig. 5, we find only one calyx, possessing, how- 
ev^er, two styles, as will be seen in the vertical section of the same 
(Fig. 6). 
We have been led to present this freak of the partndge-berry 
somewhat in detail, not simply because we believed there was no 
published record of its occurrence in this species, but chiefly for the 
following reasons: In the various teratological works and papers 
within reach, no example of a precisely similar malformation is given 
