94 Sudden Appearance and Constancy, 
has described in his excellent monograph. The whole 
plant consists of a single branchless stem, which is merely 
slightly swollen at the limits of every year's growth ; the 
needles remain adherent for a long time. 1 This form 
has appeared in diverse localities. SCHROTER records 4 
examples from Italy, one from Baden, several from 
Westphalia, Mittelfranken and Bohemia, and some from 
Mariabrunn near Vienna. The majority of these plants 
reached a height of 1-2 meters, a few of them as much 
as 5-6 meters; some of them are still alive 
RIMPAU has described an instance of sterile rye. 2 
Ears of this rye appeared almost every year during a 
period of more than ten years; they were often much 
and sometimes excessively branched, especially in years 
and localities where the rye was very thin. But as ears 
of this kind occurred on plants which also bore normal 
ones, the repeated appearance of the anomaly may per- 
haps be due to inheritance. 
And lastly, instead of giving a further record of the 
numerous existing sterile varieties, let me refer to Nitella 
syncarpa, which has recently been described by A. ERNST, 
and which bears, instead of oogonia, incompletely devel- 
oped antheridia which never produce spermatozoids. 3 
The examples in question were observed near Zurich, 
and were completely sterile. 
1 See p. 63 and C. SCHROTER, Ucbcr die Fichtc (Picca cxcclsa 
Link) Vierteljahrsschr. d. nat. Ges. in Zurich, Jahrg. XLIII, 1898, 
Parts 2 and 3, pp. 50-53, Fig. 18. This valuable work contains a 
very full review of the varieties, forms, and monstrosities of this 
highly "variable" tree. 
2 Deutsche landivirthschaftliche Presse, Berlin, October 4, 1899, 
where photographs of monstrous ears of rye are given. 
3 ALFRED ERNST, Ueber Pscudo-Hcrmaphroditismus bci Nitella 
syncarpa. Flora, 1901, Vol. 88, Part I, with Plates I-III. 
