186 



HARDWICKE'S SCI EN CE-GOS SI P. 



BOTANY. 



Abnormal Rubus. — Perhaps the following ano- 

 malous proliferous bramble-flower may be worth 

 noting, as during many years' researches among the 

 Rubi I never met with a similar instance before. The 

 flower is one of a short panicle, not the central one, 

 which is abortive, and a secondary flower arises from 

 the centre of one beneath, which has no styles, while 

 in the upper one the styles are either converted 

 into stamens or are abortive. The other^fiowers of 

 the panicle are all regular, and show immature car- 

 pels, though but few in number. The panicle in 

 this instance is short, and produced at the base of a 

 dead one of the last year. This continuance of vi- 

 tality in the flowering-stem of brambles to the third 

 year is not often the case, though I have observed it 

 occasionally, more especially in Rub?is suberectus, 

 whose barren shoots rarely or never take root, as is 

 always the case with the common fruticose Rubi. The 

 individual from which the proliferous flower here 

 mentioned was taken belongs to the division of the 

 smooth-stemmed Rubi with green leaves, and I 

 should refer it to Rubus Borreri, as its nearest con- 

 gener. The locality where the bush (a very dwarf 

 one) grew was Hartlebury^Common, near Stourport. 

 — Edwin Lees, F.L.S. 



Monstrous Wallflower. — "H. D." sends from 

 Leamington a wallflower, with the following re- 

 marks : — " The enclosed is a wallflower ; it is the 

 second year that it has blossomed, if bloom it can 

 be called, being apetalous, and the seed-pods are 

 short when ripe, not more than half an inch long. 

 Is it a common occurrence?" — It is not a very com- 

 mon occurrence, and I have never met with a case 

 before ; yet it has been observed several times, and 

 Masters, in his "Teratology," enumerates the 

 Wallflower amongst the list of flowers in which sup- 

 pression of the petals has been observed. But in 

 this particular specimen a still more interesting 

 change has taken place ; the stamens have become 

 pistils. In some instances the change is only par- 

 tial, and we have the stamens merely thickened and 

 somewhat leafy in appearance, but surmounted by 

 rudely-formed stigmas instead of being tipped with 

 anthers. In other stamens a further change is ob- 

 served ; the flattened stalk is rolled inwards, and 

 we have an approach to an ovary ; whilst in others 

 the change is complete, and the stamen-pistils con- 

 tain ovules. Then again, there are some curious 

 anomalies in the way in which these new pistils are 

 combined. Some appear to be free ; some are more 

 or less united ; whilst in other flowers the whole 

 are connected, forming a complete sheath around 

 the central ovary. This peculiar monstrosity is also 

 well known, and is called in scientific language 

 " pistillody of the stamens." It would seem to be 

 sufficiently common in the Wallflower to have in- 



duced De Candolle to look upon it as a variety, and 

 to have named it Cheiranthus gynantherus. An 

 interesting account of pistillody of the stamens will 

 be found in " Vegetable Teratology," pp. 302-310, 

 with a list of plants in which it has been observed, 

 including the Wallflower. The present specimen is 

 interesting as combining with the metamorphosis of 

 the stamens complete suppression of the petals. — 

 Robert Holland. 



Fasciation in (Enothera biennis.— This is of 

 such common occurrence in the stalks of the Even- 

 ing Primrose that it would be hardly worth record- 

 ing, except for a peculiarity which has arisen in an 

 example I Lave just found. The stem of the plant 

 is considerably flattened, being apparently formed of 

 at least four stems welded together. They are thus 

 united for about a foot of their length, when the 

 stem divides, each half being completely surrounded 

 with the skin, showing that it is not split acci- 

 dentally. Six or eight inches higher than this, the 

 branches again divide for the length of one or two 

 inches. Here they are not entirely surrounded with 

 bark, and might have been split accidentally, but 

 for the fact that they again unite, re-forming two 

 branches only ; but instead of the four branches 

 taking their original position, they have crossed 

 over and become welded into opposite stems, form- 

 ing a complication very puzzling at first, but which 

 will, perhaps, be understood by the following 

 diagram. 



The upper branches, A C and B D, are each flattened 

 out, and are covered with small bracts, like minia- 

 ture green cockscombs.— Robert Holland. 



Double Campanula. — Mr. Gilbert B. Redgrave 

 sends an interesting example of Campanula medium, 

 the old-fashioned Canterbury Bell, in which the 

 corolla is double, one bell contained in another, not 

 by the conversion of stamens into petals, but by 

 multiplication of parts. Grindon, in " British and 

 Garden Botany," says that the "hose in hose" 

 variety of this species is not very uncommon. I 

 have seen it oftener in Campanula "persicifolia, in 



