﻿Abnormal Inflorescence in Saxifraga fallax, 



By John K. Small. 



(Plate 343- ) 



Wh 



ifraga fall a 



astonishing state of affairs in the inflorescence. The flowers in 

 many cases have lost their symmetry and the different whorls usu- 

 ally possess a greater or less number of parts than the normal. 



A flower of any species of Saxifraga should have five calyx- 

 segments, five petals, ten stamens, and, in the subgenus Micranthcs, 

 two carpels. There are normal flowers on this one specimen of 

 Saxifraga fallax together with the seven following teratological 

 cases : 



1. Figure 1 represents a normal flower. 



2. The pedicels of some flowers are elongated and adnate to 

 other pedicels as shown in fig. 2, making it appear as if one calyx 

 is borne from another. 



3- Other flowers have four calyx-segments, four petals, eight 

 stamens and the normal two carpels as shown in fig. 3. 



4- A few flowers possess the normal five calyx -segments and 

 five petals but the androecium and gynoecium have respectively 

 twelve stamens and three carpels, as indicated in fig. 4. 



5- As shown in fig. 5 other flowers have developed six calyx- 

 segments, six petals and twelve stamens, the only normal part 

 being the gynoecium. 



6. A rare condition is fig. 6 where we find six calyx-segment >. 

 six petals and four carpels ; here the only normal whorl is the an- 

 droecium. 



7- Fig. 7 is the drawing of a petal in which only one lateral 

 nerve has developed. 



8. I noticed several extremely abnormal petals as indicated in 

 fi g- 8. In fact the organ was about half way between petal and 

 stamen ; the blade was folded and hooded at the apex and at the 

 f ront of the hood was situated a rudimentary anther. I have ex- 

 amined several hundred specimens of Saxifragac, but this example 

 surpasses anything I have observed in the genus as far as ab- 

 normal flowers are concerned. 



(891) 



