A MONSTROSITY IN TRILLIUM GRANDIFLORUM. 



William H. Weston. 



The genus Trillium seems to be especially subject to devia- 

 tions from the normal structure. This tendency is mentioned 

 both in Gray's Manual and in Britton and Brown's Flora, while 

 in the botanical periodicals there are references to structural 

 abnormalities in practically all species of the genus. Mr. 

 Walter Deane, of the New England Botanical Club, who has 

 collected extensively throughout the eastern United States, has 

 reported a number of monstrosities. In the common Painted 

 Trillium (7". ■andidatHfn Willd.) he has described several anom- 

 alous forms (Rhodora, Vol. 10, '08, p. 21-24 and p. 214-21G; 

 Vol. 12, '10, p. 163-166) from Massachusetts, Maine, New 

 Hampshire and New York, some with flowers on the plan of 

 four rather than three, others with as many as four superposed 

 whorls of leaves, and others showing even greater irregularities 

 of structure. The same author has described (Rhodora, Vol. 13, 

 '11, p. 189-191) a specimen of T. ovatum Pursh. from Washing- 

 ton in which sexual organs were lacking and petals were multi- 

 plied to twenty-four; and also an abnormal T. erectum {Rhodora, 

 Vol. 12, '10, p. 165) from the White Mountains which showed a 

 numerical plan of four in all parts of the flower except the sepals 

 which curiously enough were five in number. T. sessile L. has 

 also furnished instances of departure from the normal type. One 

 specimen was described by L. S. Hopkins {Plant World, '02, 

 p. 182-183) with three w^horls of leaves and an abnormal flower, 

 and another was recorded by Prof. F. M. Andrews {Plant 

 World, '06, p. 101) from near Bloomington, 111., with fourteen 

 petals and no sexual organs. Moroever in T. recurvatum Beck. 

 Prof. Andrews (loc. cit.) described a most remarkable specimen 

 with twenty-three petals. 



In the species with which the present paper is concerned, 

 T. grandiflorum (Michx.) Salisb. at least three instances of 

 teratological formation have been recorded. A case of multi- 

 plication of the petals was described by Mrs. W. A. Kellerman 

 in a plant collected in Jefferson County, Ohio (Asa Gray Bui. 

 Feb., '98, p. 18-20) the figure showing a flower with the aston- 

 ishing numl)cr of thirteen whorls of petals; a double flowered 



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