123 
number fifteen, the extra outer five occupying precisely the posi- 
tions of the five petals. The exact order here indicated pre- 
vailed in fully half the flowers on the two plants. In the others 
some part of the outer whorl was altogether missing, but there 
were always at least one or two of the anteposed pairs. In one , 
case two such pairs were crowded in opposite a calyx-sinus, mak- 
iug seventeen perfect stamens in the one blossom. The pistils 
in these two plants appeared entirely normal. The anthers were 
rather larger than in the ordinary flowers, and, when ripe, had — 
slightly reddish tips. Even in the bud they were fully exposed, . 
the calyx-lobes not being large enough to close over them, a pe- 
culiarity which gave the plant a little resemblance to the com- 
mon mignonnette. I cannot say that this new form of Saxrifraga 
Virginiensis is any prettier than the old-fashioned one, or even 
as pretty, but certainly in the fresh state the naked compact star- 
shaped clusters of anthers presented a-very odd‘ahd interesting 
appearance, stoutly usurping, as they did, the places of the ousted — 
petals, and ranging in color from red-tipped yellow in the full- — 
grown flowers to translucent white in the smaller buds. 
So far as I can learn, the form of Saxrifraga Virginiensis 
here described is entirely unmentioned in botanical records. 
Other freaks of the species, however, are duly recorded. William 
Oakes, in Hovey’s Magazine of Horticulture and Botany for 
May, 1847, established, on a plant found at Topsfield, Mass., 
in 1842, the ‘‘variety chlorantha, petals pale green instead of 
snow-white, . . . and margins and backs sprinkled with 
short hairs. . . . ” There is no hint of more than one plant 
of this form having been observed by him, and the case, as the 
_ name frankly intimates, was plainly one of simple chloranthy, a 
form of teratology by no méans infrequent. ‘ 
Another freak is recorded by Mr. Meehan, who reported in 
the American Naturalist for August, 1872, the finding of a. 
double-flowered specimen at Woburn, Mass. In the BULLETIN 
for October of that year Mr. Leggett quotes this, and adds that __ 
he had seen a similar specimen. 
If we regard the two plants which I have described as merely 
teratologic, we shall still find them of unusual interest, for they — 
exemplify perfectly the rare staminody of petals, the exact re- — 
