UNUSUAL FORMS IN PLANTS. 



377 



But even here there are monstrosities in the true sense. The 

 asparagus or sweet potato stem occasionally broadens out into a 

 ribbon, and it passes as an abnormity. The same thing takes 

 place in the flower cluster of cockscomb (Celosia cristata), and if 

 it failed to produce a strange fan-shaped and highly colored and 

 crested top the owner would complain that her seed had given her 



FIG. 4. MONSTROUS BLOSSOMS OF FOXGLOVE. 



only an inferior pigweed, and therefore not come true to name. 

 The attractiveness of the cockscomb resides in the strange habit the 

 plant has of broadening the upper end of the flower stalk out into a 

 form that is truly monstrous. And this brings me to speak of a form 

 that attracted my attention during the present season, samples of 

 which are shown in Fig. 4. 



