An Abnormal Development of the Inflorescence 



of Dionaea. 



By John W. Harshberger, A.B., B.S. 



(WITH PLATES V AND VI.) 



T I 'HE peculiarly developed plant of Dioncea now to be 

 described grew in the greenhouse of the Biological 



* Department of the University of Pennsylvania, under 

 ordinary conditions of heat and moisture. The specimen 

 flowered about the usual period, but the abnormal con- 

 dition displayed by it was not observed till after the flowers 

 had somewhat withered. 



The scape rose as usual from the centre of the rosette of 

 leaves and produced normal flowers at the end of the branch 

 that is cut off and placed at the side in the illustration for 

 sake of clearness (Plate V, Fig. 2). This branch breaks up 

 into two main shoots, each of which divides into several 

 flower-bearing stalks. 



One of the main shoots of the scape is subtended by a long 

 lanceolate bract, and a smaller bract is found on it a little 

 above the insertion of the first. In the axil of the smaller 

 bract two structures have developed, the lower being an elon- 

 gated branch, the upper evidently a metamorphosed flower, 

 (Plate V, Fig. 1, d). 



The elongated branch organ has a central rhizomatic axis 

 that produces leaves arranged in a flat spiral. Sections of the 

 leaves when magnified show normal digestive glands, and 

 sensitive hairs occur on the upper laminar surface. In these 

 and all other respects, therefore, they agree with vegetative 

 or foliage leaves. True roots (Plate V, Fig. 1, c), developed at 

 the leaf bases, grow out from the rhizome. Sections of one 

 of these roots reveal radially arranged bundles, in which 

 phloem areas alternate with xylem strands. 



