56 Mr Thomas H. Corry on an 



by the form of cauline leaves, and what is kuowii among 

 florists as hose-in-hose or a duplex corolla, which term fails 

 to describe the present divarication. 



Ofi an Abnormal Form of Listera cordata, B. Br. By 

 Thos. H. Corry, M.A., F.L.S., M.K.I. A., Assistant 

 Curator of the University Herbarium, Cambridge. 

 (Plate YII.) 



(Read 7th February 1883.) 



A very curious form of this plant has of late come 

 under my notice. In several of the specimens the stem 

 leaves, which in this species are normally two, and sub- 

 opposite, are three in number. Of these the two lower are 

 sub-opposite, and one of the pair is usually smaller and 

 ovate, while the other possesses the usual deltoid ovate 

 form. The third leaf lies at a slightly higher level than 

 the other two, and in shape it resembles the smaller one. 

 In other cases only two leaves are present, but one of them 

 is distinctly bifid for a considerable distance, and possesses 

 two well-marked main veins. This last mentioned leaf, 

 instead of being placed directly opposite the other, has 

 become carried slightly round the stem, thus showing 

 clearly the manner in which the third leaf of the former 

 case originated, viz., by fission. 



The lower bracts, instead of being shorter than the 

 pedicels as is usually the case, are much longer, in extreme 

 cases being as much as four times the length of the pedicel. 

 They are broad, ovate with a sub-cordate base, and of a 

 deep green colour ; but as they ascend the raceme they 

 become shorter, narrower and more of the normal type. 



Professor Babington informs me that he has never seen 

 polyphylly in this plant before, and that the state of the 

 bracts is very peculiar. Dr Boswell Syme, in the ninth 

 volume of the third edition of English Botany, mentions that 

 in Listera ovata, E. Br., three or even four leaves may occur 

 close together instead of the normal two, but this condition 

 is very rare. I have also seen L. ovata several times 

 with three leaves, and ^m inclined to think that the third 

 leaf is in this case also produced in the same fashion as I 



