Monstrosities 403 



slender rootstocks or runners producing at their 

 tips new rosettes of leaves and in the center of 

 these the flowering stem. My original plant 

 has since been propagated in this manner, and 

 during several years I preserved large beds 

 with hundreds of stems, in others I was com- 

 pelled to keep my culture within more restricted 

 limits. This plant has produced twisted stems 

 of the curious shape, with a nearly straight 

 flag of leaves on one side, described by De Can- 

 dolle and other observers, nearly every year. 

 But only one or two instances of abnormal 

 stems occurred in each year, and no treatment 

 has been found that proved adequate to increase 

 this number in any appreciable manner. I have 

 sown the seeds of this plant repeatedly, either 

 from normal or from twisted stems, but without 

 better results. It was highly desirable to be 

 able to offer instances of this rare and interest- 

 ing peculiarity to other universities and mu- 

 seums, but no improvement of the race could be 

 reached and I have been constrained to give it 

 up. My twisted valerian is a poor race, and 

 hardly anything can be done with it. Perhaps, 

 in other countries the corresponding rich race 

 may be hidden somewhere, but I have never had 

 the good fortune of finding it. 



This good fortune however, I did have with 

 the wild teasel or Dipsacus sylvestris. Twisted 



