396 
Teratological Notes. 
By Francis E, Lioyb. 
PLATE 247. 
The many germinating acorns which were to be seen during 
the past winter in western Oregon afforded a good opportunity 
teratological interest have been noticed. 
One of these is an acorn which, after having pushed its radi- 
cle out some distance, had met with a misfortune. Presumably a 
snail or other depredator, judging the young plant a tender mor- 
sel, had bitten into it just at the juncture of one of the petioles 
and the hypocotyl (Fig. I). The mouthful included the little plu- 
mule, so that further development of any or all of the remaining 
parts would have been in vain. The hypocotyl, nevertheless, con- 
tinued to grow, the wound healing. Furthermore, the detached 
petiole healed and produced an incipient rootlet of its own. 
In order to determine experimentally the power of the detached 
petiole to produce rootlets, three partly germinated acorns were 
chosen and a petiole and the hypocotyl in each were separated by 
cutting. Ina few days the scars healed over, and in two of the 
acorns rootlets were formed, two in one (Fig. Ila) and four in the 
second. The third failed to grow. 
Another acorn was found, from the ruptured apex of which 
three lengthened petioles had followed the protruding radicle. 
Two of these were more slender than the third, and were closely 
approximated at their bases. These the plumule had spread apart, 
pushing its way up between them. The relative positions of the 
three petioles can be understood from the diagram (Fig 1Va) of 
a transverse section through the base of the plumule. It is evi- 
dent that the two cotyledons with the approximated petioles are 
the equivalent of one in the normal seed. The earlier leaves ar© 
reduced to mere subulate bracts, and in their number and arrange- 
ment vary greatly. In these I observed no difference, except that 
they are more crowded in one region of the young stem, and this 
probably had no relation to the number of cotyledons. 
