100 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[May 1, 1869. 



always takes place partially, not in a flower, but in 

 a branch, as in the little bulbs found in the axils of 

 the leaves of Cardamine bulbifera and Lilium bulbi- 

 ferum, which I referred to in a former paper when 

 speaking of viviparous plants. These little bulbs 

 appear to be an attempt at the formation of seed 

 without the agency of flowers ; or, to speak more 

 correctly, perhaps, they are the first process in the 

 formation of seeds from buds. 



tG 



Fig. 61. 



A, A. The calyx. B. The corolla. C, C. The stamens. 



D, D. Carpellary leaves, wbych, under ordinary circum- 



stances, would have joined together to form the 

 ovary. 



E. The placenta (to which seeds are usually attached) ex- 



tended and found to be a continuation of the flower- 

 stalk, and supporting bra?ts (F), in the axils of which 

 are flower-buds (G). 



Fig. 62 represents a Peach-flower, also sent to me 

 from High Wycombe, by Mr. Britten, in March, 

 1868. In this specimen, as in so many others, all 

 the parts of the flower were converted into leaves, 

 wholly or partially ; but there was a very curious 

 fact in addition to this ; namely, that whilst the 

 greater number of leaves were evidently those of a 

 peach, there were two which exactly resembled the 

 leaves of an apricot : these will be observed in the 

 drawing. Mr. Darwin, in his recent work on 

 " Animals and Plants under Domestication," gives 

 numerous instances of bud variation, where peach- 

 trees produced occasional branches of apricot, and 

 vice versa ; also where single fruits of peach, 

 apricot, or plum, were produced amongst others of a 

 different kind ; and some examples where the sport 

 only extended to half a fruit or half a. flower. These 

 strange anomalies point, without a doubt, to a 

 common parentage of the different kinds, and I 

 think this peach-flower was a case similar to those 

 described by Mr. Darwin. 



In May last I found a flower of the small 

 Periwinkle, in which one tooth of the calyx had 

 become a petal. Soon afterwards I received two 

 flowers of Fuchsia which were very interesting. 

 One was tripartite (a common occurrence), but 

 instead of there being three petals, there were only 

 two, the other being stalked, with the limb reduced 

 to the smallest possible size, and attached to it a 

 rudely-formed anther. The other flower was 



Fig. C2. Peach Flower. 



tetramerous, but three of its four petals were, in 

 like manner, partially converted into stamens. The 

 new anthers were evidently formed by the edges of 

 the petals being rolled inwards. In most monstrous 

 flowers, as I have said, complex organs revert to 

 simpler ones, internal organs to external organs, 

 and the fact of flowers being altered leaf-buds is 

 inferred rather than proved thereby ; but in these 

 two very uncommon examples we have more direct 

 evidence, for we find stamens actually being formed 

 from the much more simple petals in the Fuchsia, 

 and coloured petals from the green calyx in the 

 Periwinkle. 



During the past autumn, Mr. Britten and I found 

 near Llyn Gwynant, in North Wales, a very re- 

 markable and highly interesting example of Honey- 



