142 Miscellaneous. 



strosities in the conformation of their fronds, which by that means 

 acquire very singular figures. These monstrosities are sought 

 for by the fanciers of these plants, because they consider 

 them an improvement ; and they were for a long time rare and 

 bore a high price in horticultural commerce. Now-a-days they 

 are produced in as great abundance as can be desired, by simply 

 sowing the spores, on condition that these spores are taken from the 

 altered parts of the fructifying frond. Where the frond remains in 

 the normal state, the spores only give origin to normal plants ; but 

 those of the monstrous portions of the same fronds reproduce with 

 certainty plants affected with the same kind of alteration. This 

 mode of propagation has been in use for several years ; and the fact 

 of the transmission of monstrosities by sowing, in the Ferns, has 

 never yet been invalidated by experiment. 



Very considerable anomalies, which may be classed among terato- 

 logical facts with as much reason as in the two preceding instances, 

 may be observed in the three species of alimentary gourds — plants 

 subjected to cultivation from time immemorial, and which have never 

 been found in the wild state. These anomalies are peculiar in this 

 respect, that they characterize very well-marked and persistent races, 

 are preserved notwithstanding changes of place and climate, and 

 even partially resist crossing with other races of the same species. 

 The date of their origin is unknown, nor do we know under what 

 influences they were formed ; but the species being here entirely 

 reduced to a state of domesticity, it is very probable that some of 

 these races, if not all, were actually produced by cultivation. Such, 

 among others, is a race of the common gourd {Cuciirbita jiepo), in 

 which the tendrils are all converted into a kind of branches which 

 give origin to leaves, flowers, and often to fruits ; such ai'e also, in 

 the same species, those numerous races with deformed, warty, and 

 oddly coloured fruits, which are preserved by sowings, always in a 

 similar condition, so long as intercrossings do not step in to modify 

 them. A still more remarkable example is that of a small race of 

 pumpkin (C maxima) which we have received from China and ob- 

 served for several years at the Museum. Resembling the type of 

 the species in the organs of vegetation, it differs therefrom singularly 

 in the ovary and the fruit, which have become almost entirely free, 

 the tube of the calyx being reduced into a sort of plateau serving to 

 support the carpels. Nevertheless the complete adhesion of the ovary 

 to the tube of the calyx, in which it is deeply immersed, is given by all 

 authors as one of the essential characters of the family Cucurhitacece. 

 From this example we see how great may be the extent of the varia- 

 tions and also what a degree of fixity these variations may acquire 

 when once they are produced. 



The fact of which I have still to speak is quite recent, and has 

 already been brought under the notice of the Academy by Dr. 

 Godron, Professor of Botany at Nancy (Comptes Rendus, 1866, i. 

 p. 379). I refer to it here because my own observations confirm it 

 in all points, and especially because it shows us very clearly how a 

 new race may originate from an anomaly. In 1861, Dr. Godron 



