81 



TERATOLOGICAL NOTES ON ESCHSCHOLTZIA CAL- 



IFORNICA. 



A CURIOUS instance of fasciation in a plant *of Eschscholtzia Cal- 

 ifornica was recently brought to my notice by Mrs. G. P. Thomas, 

 of Ocean View, near San Francisco. It was a remarkable mon- 

 strosity, consisting of thirteen to twenty flowers surmounting a flat- 

 tened ribbed stem two inches wide. The stem flared at the top as in 

 common cultivated Cockscomb. The flowers were so grown to- 

 gether, side by side, that it was not possible to ascertain definitely 

 their number. The stem was leafy on the ribbon-like surface, and 

 was branched below the fixsciation. 



Out on the sand-hills near Golden Gate Park an Eschscholtzia 

 plant was found bearing flowers, all the petals of which were 

 deeply lacinate. The flowers consequently presented a ragged 

 appearance, as if they had been slashed by the wind. The gentle- 

 man^ who found it^ removed the plant to his garden. It is his in- 

 tention to secure seed in order to preserve, if possible, the variation. 



Miss Margaret Adamson sent me, from Larkspur, a specimen 

 which bore, instead of the essential organs, a leafy branch and flower 

 bud. Prolification is not unusual in this species. I remember find- 

 ing several plants near Laundry Farm, in Alameda County, in 

 which nearly all the flowers showed the same tendency. — Alice 

 Eastwood. 



On a small hilltop at Larkspur, Marin County, where the plants 

 were scattered, I found nineteen Eschscholtzia plants, varying in 

 the shape, number, and color of their petals. Color-variation is too 

 common to be worthy of note in this genus, but it was the remark- 

 able diversity in the shape and number of the petals that especially 

 attracted my attention. There were many with pointed petals, 

 giving the flower a star-like appearance ; others with petals serrated, 

 slashed and fluted. The first plant that I noticed, had only two 

 flowers, one with six and the other with five petals. 



*An illustration of this plant appeared in the San Francisco Daily 

 Call of March 19, 1898. For description of a very similar specimen, see 

 Erythea, ii. 14. — Ed. 



Erythka, Vol. VII., No. 9 [1 September, 1899]. 



