BULLETIN 



OF THE 



TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB 



Vol. XV.] New York, June 2, 1888. [No. 6. 



The Development of Symplocarpus foetidus (L,), Salisb. 



By Aua F, Foerste. 



Plate LXXXII. 



Among the most interesting studies in animal or vegetable 

 morphology are the homologies of aborted or almost obsolete 

 organs which once had a purpose, but now are cast aside as en- 

 tirely useless. Although the existence of such organs in vege- 

 table life is not so much a matter of general information, it is 

 Here that some of the most curious and readily understood ex- 

 amples are to be found. 



It has already been noted that Apios itiberosa^ rejects entirely 

 the terminal part of each panicle, and all but the lower two or 

 three buds of each of the remaining racemes, using the scars left 

 by the rejected buds as nectar-glands. Usually, however, rejec- 

 tion does not take place in this literal fashion, but consists merely 

 in a decrease of size and loss of function. Thus in Syinplocarpus 

 fa^hdus t most of the '* flowers " are aborted, only a few of the 

 earlier formed developing to maturity. Which shall be the 

 flowers of the next season is already evident during the previous 

 summer. | As many as three or four flowers may blossom in 

 the spring. Since at this time of the year the comparative mor- 

 phology of the plant is most readily studied, the following notes 

 may^be considered as referring chiefly to plants as they appear 

 in the spring : 



The outer covering of the growing portion consists of two or 

 three large enfolding scales representing petioles ; these are very 

 "^uch decayed. Under favorable conditions small aborted mem- 

 branaceous spathes may be detected apparently in the axils of 



* Bulletin, XI., 1884, p. 123. 



t Am. Nat., 1S83, p. 1109. 

 : Am. Nat, 1885, p. 301. 



