4 Rothrock. — A Monstrous Specimen of 



tions similar to the first, except that they were smaller and 

 less plainly differentiated. 



The tendency in the stigmas of the tubular flowers to be- 

 come enlarged, green, and leaf-like was very positive. Fig. 



. shows this. Not only so, but in that special instance the 

 hairs were characteristic of the species, and an upper and a 

 lower leaf-like surface could readily be observed. 



One tubular flower had five stamens, which though inserted 

 properly on the tube of the corolla, were absolutely separate 

 as to their anthers from each other. Its stigmas had each an 

 evident midrib bordered by a narrow wing of parenchyma. 



In some instances, where the stigmatic enlargement was not 

 great, there were traces of a normal stigmatic surface. Unfort- 

 unately examinations of the ovaries was not always made, 

 but in a few, ovules, probably unfertilized, were seen. It 

 should also be stated that in one tubular flower, whose 

 stigmas were green and decidedly enlarged, a well developed 

 ovule was found. It could not have been fertilized. 



It is, of course, hard to admit that these proliferated styles 

 and stigmas represent axial structures ; but it appears equally 

 difficult to avoid that conclusion, if one may reason from a 

 single, or from a few monstrous specimens. 



It is not clear, however, that Linnaeus had not some 

 suspicion that such cases were of an axial nature, in other 

 than the aggregates. It is not easy to see how he could, with 

 his views, have excluded this Rudbeckia, 1 with its enlarged, 

 leaf-like stigmas. There is another question raised by this 

 specimen, i. e., whether after all the Rudbeckia is not to be 

 regarded as reducing to an absurdity that form of morpho- 

 logical reasoning which relies so implicitly upon a few 

 monstrous specimens to furnish a clue to the essential nature 

 of normal structures. In other words, is it a safe concession 

 to allow that, in science, an exception proves the rule ? 



My attention has recently been called to some monstrous 

 flowers of Digitalis, which, appearing at the summit of the 

 stem, had resulted in the production of an unusual number 

 of stamens. 



i See Phil. Bot. 124. 



