[Pkoc. Roy. Soc. Victoria, 28 (N.S.), Part II., 1916]. 



Akt. XIX. — Teratological Notes; Part 1. 



By A. D. HARDY, F.L.8. 



(Forests Department, Melbourne). 



(With Plate XXIX.). 

 [Read December 9tli, 1915]. 



By means of this and other papers to follow, it is intended to 

 place on record occurrences of interest to specialists in vegetable 

 teratology which have come under my notice during the past few 

 years. The present paper includes references to seedlings only, leav- 

 ing to future parts notes on heterotaxy and morphological devia- 

 tions in foliage, etc., of older plants, particularly with regard to 

 some of our indigenous flora. 



Abnormal Seedlings. 1 



Cotyledonary leaves, regarded as of diagnostic value by Ray 

 at the end of the 17th century, but not used by him in the genesis 

 of the natural system of classification, were placed in commission, 

 as it were, by Jussieu, in limiting the primary divisions of the 

 angiosperms. Since then the cotyledons have been recognised with 

 due regard for their importance in association with other characters, 

 but occasionally — and in some cases frequently — polycotylous forms 

 appear among normal contemporaries of the same species of dicotyle- 

 dons; and other aberrations are not uncommon — at least in culti- 

 vated plants. 



The most frequent abnormality noted by me was the polymerous 

 whorl of cotyledons; the next, polyphylly (in the subsequent pro- 

 duction of foliar leaves); the third in frequency was the cohesion 

 of members of a cotyledonary whorl; the fourth was the bifurcation 

 of the axis of the cotyledon; the fifth, fission or lobing of the cotyle- 

 don ; and, last, stem abnormalities — bifurcation of the seedling axis, 

 and hypocotylous supplementary shoots, being rare within my 

 experience. 



The specimens have all been taken from cultivation, and, further, 

 my inquiry, as far as the seedlings are concerned, has been spread 

 over a field limited to three nurseries and a suburban garden and 

 to one season only excepting one species- CopJ'osma lucida. 



1 In '• A Contribution to our Knowledge of Seedlings" (Avebury) will be found a w.altli of in- 

 formation as to normal plants, and a comprehensive bibliography. 



