1917] Goodspeed: Notes on Trillmm 75 



Trillium sessile L. 



Andrews (1906) describes two abnormal plants of this species. 

 One bore fourteen "floral leaves," and it was noted that "no trace of 

 the usual stamens or pistil was present, all the floral organs being 

 completelj^ transformed into floral leaves." The other plant had four 

 leaves, three (?) sepals, "four large partly-greenish petals, six small 

 stamens and four styles." Foerste (1891 and 1894) in two articles 

 discusses the phylotaxy of a number of teratological individuals, de- 

 scribes the effort of the typically trimerous plant to accommodate itself 

 to the dimerous conditions, and comments upon the ability of one 

 abnormal individual to maintain the quaternate arrangement with 

 only six floral envelopes. He mentions five cases of doubling in this 

 species. One plant was four-parted throughout, the whorls being 

 normally oriented. A second plant bore four leaves, two sepals, four 

 petals, two of which were partially sepaloid, and six stamens. Another 

 plant is described as being four-parted, except that one petal is missing 

 and but six stamens (all double) are present. A fourth plant was 

 more highly abnormal and irregular, bearing five leaves, two sepals, 

 three petals, seven stamens, and a four-celled ovary. Hopkins (1902) 

 describes three teratological shoots, all from the same rootstock. One 

 showed three whorls of three leaves each, four petals, no sepals, five 

 stamens, three styles and stigmas, and the ovary six-angled ; another, 

 two whorls of three leaves each, no sepals, six petals, seven stamens, 

 four styles and stigmas, and the ovary eight-angled; while the third 

 corresponded to this last, except that nine stamens were present and 

 there were but two styles and stigmas. The author assigns the con- 

 dition of this teratological individual to over-nutrition. Morris (1902) 

 notes the fact that the production of single, long-petioled leaves from 

 the rootstock has been widely mentioned in general descriptions of the 

 genus. He describes and figures a rootstock of sessile which bears two 

 normal, flowering shoots from the terminal rootstock crown and in 

 addition two small lateral offsets, each bearing a single one of these 

 long-petioled leaves. As stated by the author, "these leaves sprang, 

 each from the node nearest the apices of two tiny branches from the 

 main rootstock." Hankensen {lac. cit.) also mentions plants of grandi- 

 flot'um with a single radical leaf. 



This question of the production of single, long-petioled leaves from 

 the rootstock of Trillium is one which has throughout been of con- 

 siderable interest in our studies upon the Calif ornian species. As 



