I860.] Abnormal and Normal formations in Plants. 227 



A tree of that variety of the weeping willow, whose leaves are 

 rolled up in a spiral coil, after retaining its character for twenty- 

 five years, at length sent forth a shoot in an ascending direction, 

 this shoot being clothed with flat leaves, as in the common form. 

 There are several varieties of the sweet pea : many years of obser- 

 vation have shown that the white flowered sweet peas seldom, if 

 ever, vary ; but that in proportion as the flower becomes darker in 

 colour, so is the liability to vary greater : and these changes are not 

 confined to the colour merely, but affect the pods and other organs. 

 So too, the yellow varieties of the hyacinth are more constant than 

 those of other colours. On the whole the varieties, and still more the 

 malformations, are characterized by a want of constancy and a ten- 

 dency to degenerate : a tendency not overlooked by Virgil, as witness 

 the following lines : — 



" Vidi lecta diu, et multo spectata labore, 

 Degenerare tamen ; ni vis humana quotannis 

 Maxima quseque manu legeret : sic omnia fatis 

 In pejus ruere, ac retro sublapsa referri : 

 Non aliter, quam qui adverso vix flumine lembum 

 Remigiis subigit, si brachia forte remisit, 

 Atque ilium in praeceps prono rapit alveus amni." 



Georg. i., 197. 



[M. T. M.] 



[The speaker takes this opportunity of expressing his obligations 

 to several of his friends who supplied him with illustrations for his 

 discourse, especially to his father, to Mr. Ward, Mr. Baxter, and 

 Prof. Buckman.] 



