SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[Jan.], 1866. 



IMPERFECTLY DEVELOPED PLANTS. 



AS the record of variations in plants, and of ab- 

 normal forms, seems to be interesting to many 

 of the readers of Science-Gossip, I make no other 

 apology for contributing a second chapter on the 

 same subject. 



Fig. 4. 



Fig-. 5. 



In a very rich piece of newly broken-up ground 

 I gathered, a few years ago, some leaves of Dande- 

 lion (Fig. 4), which, owing to luxuriant growth, had 

 become enormously large and much more deeply 

 cut than usual, being, in fact, li-runcinatc. Leaves 

 often become more deeply cut from poverty, and 

 more simple through luxuriance, but in this case the 

 extra cutting was undoubtedly caused by the rich- 

 ness of the soil, there being several similar plants, 

 each of which was nearly two feet across. 



In another case, however, of Horse-radish (Fig. 

 5), the radical leaves of nearly all the plants in my 

 garden became last year so deeply cut as to be 

 almost pinnate. This was no doubt caused by the 

 dryness of the season. The horse-radish is a plant 

 which loves a cool, moist soil, establishing itself by 

 the side of water, and in the half-dry beds of rivers, 

 where it grows luxuriantly, and the continued 

 drought impoverished the plants. It is quite the 

 character of the order Cricctferae to have pinnatifid 

 or lyratc leaves, and it is somewhat remarkable that 



the horse-radish, in an unhealthy state, should so 

 much more resemble the other plants of the tribe 

 than it does when properly grown. 



I met with a leaf of White-Clover {Trifoliwm 

 repens) in the autumn, in which the leaflets have a 

 tendency to become pinnate (Fig. 6). An appearance 



Fig. 6. 



something like this often takes place when the tip 

 of a leaf has been bitten whilst folded up, every 

 leaflet being equally injured, but this seems so 

 regularly formed that I think it is a natural mon- 



strositv. 



Fig;. 7. 



Figure 7 is a drawing of a not unfrequent form of 

 Plantain (Plai/tagu lanceolata), which has become 

 proliferous, producing small flower-heads on foot- 

 stalks and several leaves from the base of the 

 flower. Gathered at Beaumaris during the last 

 summer. 



