252 THl^- XATUKALIST. 



On an Instance of ''CHLORANTHIE" in VERBASCUM THAPSUS. 



By Henei van Heurck, 



Professor of Botany at the " Kruidkundig Genootschap," Antwerp. 



One part of my garden having been neglected, I recently found there 

 a great number of plants of Verbascum Thapsus, a plant somewhat rare in 

 the neighbourhood of Antwerp, and one of them presented a very remark- 

 able instance of Chloranthie. 



It will be understood that the term Chloranthie has been given to the 

 change of all the parts of a flower into leaves. A flower thus metamor- 

 phosed, appears in the bud as a little tuft of foliaceous organs more or 

 less compact, and which Mr. George Dickie has compared to a cabbage in 

 miniature. Chloranthie is of frequent occurrence amongst the CrucifercB, 

 CyperacecB, GraminacecB, and Juncacew, but is rarely noted in the other 

 orders, and I know of only a single observation of it in the Verbascums, 

 which is that of Verbascum phlomoides by M. Dunal.* 



The plant which furnished the monstrosity described in this article 

 was extremely stunted. It was only about thirty centimetres (llj 

 inches) in height, with a few very small leaves, in the axil of each of which 

 was a well developed bud. 



On the upper part of the stem, in the axils of each of the leaves, was 

 a short branch of from one to two centimetres in length, covered with trans- 

 formed flowers. The latter were very much crowded, one of these little 

 branches alone bearing more than fifty flowers. Each of these flowers was 

 composed of a dozen green, lanceolate and almost linear leaflets. In the 

 centre of some of them the leaflets were surrounded by rudimentary an- 

 thers : in other instances the anthers were well formed, and borne on the 

 summit of undilated filaments : but in every case the anthers were green, 

 and without any trace of pollen. In the centre of the transformed flower 

 I noted sometimes a rosette of five to eight leaflets, sometimes the rudi- 

 ments of an ovary. 



The cause of the transformation which I have described is quite un- 

 known to me : and on no part of the plant could I find any trace of the 

 work of insects. 



* Considerations sur les fonctions des organes floraux colores et glanduleux, par 

 M. F. Dunal. 4to. Paris, 1829. 



