282 SHORT NOTES. 



Catalogue, of which a second and revised edition has just been 

 issued, demands a word of praise, although we venture to 

 doubt the accuracy of a statement in a contemporary that it 

 "contains all that Miss North knows about the subjects and 

 places painted." 



Where all are so good it is difficult to single out any picture 

 for special notice. Some of the groups of the wild flowers of 

 certain regions — such as those of Victoria (564) of West Australia 

 (551), of Tasmania (552), of the Himalayas (267), of Brazil (157), 

 and of California (208) — are remarkable on account of the 

 number of species which they contain, each being capable of 

 identification. 



One of the most noteworthy features connected with the 

 Gallery is the studio, with appliances for drawing, which is 

 open to artists who may wish to draw from the living plants 

 in the gardens ; the specimens can be removed to this room 

 and there drawn. We would strongly advise all who can do 

 so to visit the "Marianne North" Gallery — which, it may be 

 well to mention, is open on Sundays as well as during the 

 week — without delay; and we concur in Sir Joseph Hooker's 

 expression of gratitude to the generous donor "for her fortitude 

 as a traveller, her talent and industry as an artist, and her 

 liberality and public spirit." 



SHOET NOTES. 



Monstrous Development of Cheiranthus Cheiri. — Towards the 

 end of May I was struck with a strange appearance in the wall- 

 flowers in a garden at Daresbury, Cheshire, of which there was a 

 great profusion. At least one-half of the plants were producing 

 spikes of seed, apparently without having flowered, iu the ordinary 

 sense of the word ; and the sccd-pods of these plants were shortened 

 and very much thickened. There were two varieties of wallflowers 

 in the garden ; one, the ordinary kind, with bronzed or dark red 

 petals ; the other witli bright yellow flowers and more compact 

 leaves ; and botli kinds were similarly, and about equally, monstrous. 

 On examination I found the following teratological phenomena : — 

 In every case the four sepals preserved their normal form and 

 texture ; in most of the flowers the petals were reduced to green 

 linear scales, but in some they had partially taken on the form 

 and colour of sepals ; in some few the petals were developed to 

 about half their usual size, and in a very few instances they were 

 fully developed and of the usual colour ; the ovaries, however, pre- 

 sented the most curious and interesting changes, having become 

 compound; the central ovary iu each flower was surrounded by 

 three or four new ones, which were sometimes, perhaps more often 

 than not, completely united to the central ovary ; in other cases 

 they were free, or partially so ; when not completely united the 

 new ovaries were only partly closed up, showing the ovules 

 attached to their incurved edges ; in no case were the exterior 



