P L A 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



P L A 



357 



much that the flower becomes somewhat like the ear of wheat, 

 and the corol never appears. Less conspicuous is this dis- 

 ease, when a few stamens only are not so properly formed 

 as the rule requires. Monstrositas, is the preternatural form 

 of single parts or a whole plant. In the flower and fruit the 

 monstrosity is often such as to prevent their use entirely. 

 The stem is sometimes writhed, bent, knotty, too much 

 depressed, and in a lying posture. Cold climates in general 

 make plants rough, small, and crippled. On high mountains 

 the tallest trees are at last reduced to a small size. A mon- 

 strosity is sometimes observed in leaves, by their becoming 

 deformed, either larger or more numerous, thicker, or frizzled. 

 Every person has seen Trefoil with four leaves, or the preter- 

 naturally red-coloured leaves of the Beech-tree, and other 

 varieties belonging to this class. Fruits likewise are variously 

 deformed ; they are either very large or very small, grown 

 together, distorted, crooked, and the like. These may, how- 

 ever, produce good seeds. But fruits which are doubled, 

 where, when one is cut, a second one appears in its interior, 

 as sometimes happens in citron, and fruits which have no 

 seeds, (as, for instance, the Bromelia ananas, Muga paradi- 

 siaca Artocarpus incisa, Berberis vulgaris,) entirely fail us in 

 the end for which they were intended by nature. Monstrous 

 flowers are of no value for the botanist, as their sexual organs 

 are wanting, and he is unable without these to ascertain the 

 genus. They are only of some importance to him, if they 

 elucidate any points in physiology. They are particularly 

 agreeable to garden amateurs, who have so vitiated a taste 

 as to despise simple nature in all its beauty, and with care 

 often transplant these deformities into their gardens. 



" The deformities in flowers are the following : Flos mul- 

 tiplicatus, a double flower; Flos plenus, a full flower; Flos 

 difformis, a deformed flower; and lastly, Flos prolifer, a 

 proliferous flower. Flos multiplicatus, a double flower, is 

 the beginning of a full flower. Flowers are styled double, 

 when their petals exceed the usual number, bu* stamens and 

 pistil still remain to accomplish impregnation, and to produce 

 ripe seeds. The first beginning of a double flower is the 

 corolla duplex, or triplex, when the corol becomes double or 

 treble. Monopetalous corols are often double ; for instance, 

 Datura and Campanula; but polypetalous corols still more 

 frequently. As long as the pistil remains perfect in a flower, 

 and it can bear seeds, so long the flower is called double. 

 The cause of this deformity is the same as in the following. 

 Very little care is taken to remedy this evil, as gardeners 

 even like to see full and double flowers. But if botanists 

 wish to see double flowers of herbaceous plants in their 

 natural state, they ought by all means to give them by 

 degrees worse and worse soil. Flos plenus. A full flower is 

 that where the petals have become so numerous as to exclude 

 both stamens and style altogether. As such flowers want 

 the necessary organs of impregnation, they will never be able 

 to produce seeds. The full and double flower both originate 

 from too great richness of soil. A number of vessels become 

 stuffed with nourishing sap, in such a manner, that the petals 

 and stamens split, and are changed into more petals. Some 

 flowers are so full that the calix bursts. Monopetalous flow- 

 ers are rarely full ; such as, Primula, Hyacinthus, Datura, 

 Polyanthes. Polypetalous plants are oftener full ; as, Pyrus, 

 Prunus, Rosa, Fragaria, Ranunculus, Caltha, Anemone, 

 Aquilegia, Papaver or Poeonia, and many others. Dianthus 

 caryophyllus, and Papaver somniferum, have been brought 

 forward as fair instances to prove that full flowers may pro- 

 duce seeds. But this proceeds from confounding a full 

 flower with a double one. The last may bear seeds, but a 

 nil flower never. Flowers which have nectaries in form of a 



spur or a cup, usually increase the spur or cup, and lose the 

 petals altogether, or they retain the last in their natural situa- 

 tion ; or, they lose sometimes the spur or cup, and enlarge only 

 the petals. Of the first kind, Aquilegia vulgaris, and Nar- 

 cissus pseudo-narcissus, may serve as instances. In the Aqui- 

 legia the petals are dislodged, and the spur only increased 

 in number : in this case, then, many spurs are enclosed in 

 one another like so many cornets. In Narcissus the petals 

 remain natural, but the nectarium is multiplied. The same 

 plants likewise present instances of the second kind ; in 

 Aquilegia, the spurs are in this case entirely wanting, and the 

 petals increase in number; in the same way Narcissus may 

 sometimes want the nectarium, and the petals become full. 

 The Violet and the Larkspur become full in the same manner. 

 Flowers which have one or a few stamens only, are seldom 

 full : when they are full, and this is exceedingly rare, it is 

 only in such plants as have a monopetalous corol. As an 

 instance of this kind, I shall mention Jasrainum sambac. 

 Some of the natural families never yet produced any double 

 or full flowers. Such are, Palmae, Calmarite, Gramina, 

 Apetalse, (flowers without petals,) Amentaceee, Coniferee, 

 Tripetaloidae, Orchidese, Scitamineee, Oleracese, Inundatse, 

 Bicornes, Tricoccee, Stellatse, Umbellatse, Asperifoliee, Verti- 

 cillatee. Some of the last, however, afford an exception. In 

 those flowers which are styled "Personates, it has been only 

 observed in the species Antirrhinum. The papilionaceae, 

 have been found full in a few instances only ; as in Coronilla, 

 Anthyllis, Clitoria, Spartium. Full flowers, as we have just 

 now mentioned, occur most frequently in polypetalous corols, 

 but the monopetalous are sometimes seen full, though this 

 was formerly denied ; as instances, are Colchicum, Crocus, 

 Hyacinthus, Polyanthes, Convallaria, and Polygonatum. The 

 polypetalous corol becomes full by its petals, the mono- 

 petalous by its laciniee. Full flowers are somewhat of the 

 appearance of compound flowers, and consequently may be 

 mistaken by the student for such ; but they are easily distin- 

 guished by the following marks : 1. In the centre of a full 

 flower, remnants of the style, are still to be seen. 2. Each 

 petal is not furnished with stamens or a style. 3. After they 

 have blossomed, nothing remains, and no fruit whatever can 

 be traced. 4. Lastly, no common receptacle is to be found. 

 Compound flowers become full in a peculiar manner. Flores 

 semiflosculosi, when they grow mature, have a very long ger- 

 men, and a pappus which is as long again as the germen. 

 The linguiform corol, style, and stamens, are natural, but 

 the stigma is divided, and of the same length with the corol. 

 Such deformities occur in Scorzonera, Lapsana, and Trago- 

 pogon. By these characters, and by their never bearing ripe 

 seeds, they may be distinguished from natural semifloscular 

 flowers. Flores radiati. Radiate flowers grow full in a two- 

 fold manner, either by the disk or centre, or by the rays. If 

 the disk is full, it suppresses the radii altogether, and the 

 tubular corols grow longer, so as to get almost a club-shaped 

 form, and in this case the stamens are entirely lost ; for 

 example, Matricaria, Bellis, Tagetes, &c. In the same man- 

 ner, likewise, compound flowers become full, which naturally 

 consist of tubular florets ; for instance, Carduus. From 

 natural flowers of the same external appearance, full flowers 

 may be easily distinguished by tho longer corol, and by the 

 want of seeds. If the radius is full, then no disk can be seen, 

 and such a flower gets much of the appearance of the flos 

 semiflosculosus, from which, however, it may be distinguished 

 at once, by there being not the least appearance of stamens. 

 From this simple full flower, the full compound flower differs 

 in this point, that there is a style attached to each petal. The 

 radius of a simple radiate flower remains the same in a full 



