579 



On a monstrosity of Cardamine pratensis. By Geo. Lawson, Esq. 



A FEW days ago, by the margin of a peat-bog at the Sidlaw hills, 

 in Forfarshire, I found an instance of abnormal development in the 

 Cardamine pratensis, somewhat similar to that written of by Dr. 

 Bromfield, at page 241 of the present volume of the ' Phytologist.' 

 Several of the seed-pods on the lower part of the corymb were 

 changed from their usual linear to a subulate form, and on opening 

 them, T found a little below the middle of the pod, a mass of petaloid 

 laminae, completely filling that part of it ; and above these a number 

 of ovules, arranged in the ordinary manner along either side of the 

 vessel. On the upper part of the corymb was a flower, with petals 

 having a foliaceous appearance, but on the margins having a true 

 petaloid character : that flower had, before opening, been enclosed 

 in an ovate-elliptical seed-vessel, such as those mentioned by Dr. B., 

 but the petals &c. "had burst from their confinement at the commis- 

 sures, * * the valves of the pod answering exactly by their 

 position to the true calyx." It was furnished with the proper num- 

 ber of anthers (six), but two of these were placed on one filament : 

 the filaments of the stamina were much swollen, as indeed were all 

 the other parts of this monstrous combination of blossom and seed- 

 vessel. It also contained a germen of about half an inch in length, of 

 a tapering form, being thickest at the basal extremity : this germen 

 was hollow, but I could detect no ovules in it. The other flowers of 

 the corymb were in all respects of the normal form. I observed seve- 

 ral minute caterpillars of a bright scarlet colour on the inside of the 

 petals of this latter flower: might these be the cause of the deformity? 

 Insects are often found to give curious forms to leaves and flowers. 

 Sir William Jackson Hooker, in speaking of this plant, remarks, — 

 " Sometimes found double, in which state the leaflets are known to 

 produce new plants, when they come in contact with the ground, 

 while still attached to the parent plant," (Brit. Flora, ed. 5. i. 25). Is 

 the state here referred to that spoken of by Dr. Bromfield ? 



Geo. Lawson. 



108, Hawkhill, Dundee, June 15, 1846. 



Note on Arenaria i^liginosa {Alsine stricta). By J. Backhouse, jun. 



It may not be uninteresting to some of the readers of the ' Phyto- 

 logist ' to know that in the early part of last month, in company with 

 G. S. Gibson, Jas. H. Tuke (of York), and my father, T found several 

 plants of Arenaria uliginosa [Alsine stricta) in the old locality on 



