378 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The striking feature of the specimens of foxglove {Digitalis 

 'purpurea) under consideration is the production of an enormous 

 somewhat bell-shaped flower at the extremity of the long racemose 

 inflorescence, and at a time when onlv a few of the lowermost blos- 

 soms upon the stem have opened. The normal digitalis flower has 

 a large pendant purple corolla much spotted upon the middle lobe 

 of the larger and lower lip. On the other hand, the truly monstrous 

 flowers, two to three inches across, are borne terminally and are 

 quite uniformly bell-shaped, with the lobes from twelve to four- 

 teen and spotted evenly over all the surface. The four stamens 

 of the normal flower have increased to twelve in three examined and 

 to thirteen in another. These stamens are normal in size and situ- 

 ated w^OT\ the corolla tube, except that there is no indication of their 

 being in long and short pairs. 



The single pistil is many times enlarged in the monstrous blos- 

 som — in one instance two thirds of an inch in diameter for the ovary. 

 Within the outer ovarian wall there was a circle of five petaloid 

 pistils, some showing the placentae and ovules intermixed with the 

 pink and purplish petaloid expansions. 



Within the circle above mentioned there was a second pistil, 

 tipped like the original with petal-like lobes instead of a stigma. 

 The column was found so closely built up that the parts would not 

 separate, and a cross-section was made through it, which showed that 

 the pistil had a greenish central stalk around which the ovarian 

 cavities were scattered quite irregularly, all bearing numerous 

 ovules. In the flowers with twelve stamens there were four tips to 

 the stigma, and the eight cavities were to be distinguished in the 

 ovary, although they were not arranged in any regular order and 

 not uniform in size. In short, the transections of these resembled 

 the seed cavities seen in a slice of a large tomato of the " trophy " 

 or " ponderosa " type. 



The florists' catalogues advertise in a few instances this " Digi- 

 talis rtionstrosa" and it is presumed that the specimens from which 

 the engraving was made were from a packet of this " strain " of 

 seed. As but a small percentage of the plants in the bed examined 

 were monstrous, letters were addressed to some German growers of 

 the seed, with questions as to this commercial monstrosity. One 

 reply contained the statement that the form known as " monstrosa " 

 had been in the market about ten years, and that about fifty per 

 cent of the plants produce the strange terminal flowers. Another 

 correspondent recalls the form in question as having been catalogued 

 for more than forty years, and that it is described in a work upon 

 gardening published in 1859, in which it states that the seed of this 

 variety must only be gathered from the capsules of the monstrous 



