SOME VEGETABLE MALFORMATIONS. 



321 



even bring roses that have taken on such peculiar developments 

 that one can scarcely refrain from a smile when the structure is 

 examined. Fig. 2 shows a sample that came to me accompanied 

 by some most difficult questions. Instead of the blossom termi- 

 nating the branch, as is usually the case, there is a continuation 

 of the cane beyond the flower, where it forms leaves and 

 new buds. This prolification, as it is termed, is found at 

 rare intervals and in a less conspicuous manner in perhaps 



1 1 h 



Fig. 3. Fig. 4. 



Fig. 5. 



Fig. 6. — Abnormal Fig. 7. — Pear 



Peppers. with Branch. 



a hundred different genera of plants. The plantains show this 

 prolific manner of producing flowers in a marked degree, as also 

 do the garden pinks. 



In the doubling of flowers — that is, the change of stamens or 

 pistils or both into petals — there are many strange combinations 

 produced. All gradations between the perfect stamen with its 

 pollen-bearing tip and the normal petal can be found. In such 

 large flowers as the pseonia the malformations seem like a fruit- 

 less struggle between two contending forces, one to keep the 

 flower single and sexual and the other to reduce all parts to a 

 barren neutrality. In the lilies a similar confusion arises in the 

 attempt of the blossoms to hold their essential organs while the 

 surrounding conditions are such as to turn them into the more 

 showy petals. All this multitude of instances, while of exceed- 



