158 DEFORMITY IN A FLOWERING HEAD OF CHARLOCK. 



On the piece of the stem which I Lave preserved, and which 

 is altogether about 6Jin. long, there are six pods below the 

 point where the connecting branch diverges from it, two of these 

 being within -Jin. of this point. On the curved piece of the main 

 stem there are, or rather have been, eight seed pods, and beyond the 

 second junction are numerous seed pods and flowers, one seed pod 

 being exactly level with the junction of the stem and branch. On 

 the connecting branch, and almost exactly in the middle, is a very 

 small but perfect bud, just like those at the tip of the main stem, 

 and on this branch, quite close to its upper junction, is a second 

 small bud. These I regard as of great importance in working out 

 the history of this monstrosity. 



The only other peculiarity in the stem that I think it worth while 

 to describe is a long groove which begins about |in. below the first 

 junction, and continues its course up the main stem to near the tip. 

 The stem is naturally covered with very small longitudinal grooves, 

 so small that it would more correctly be called striated ; and it is 

 out of one of these tiny grooves that the larger groove of which I 

 am speaking, arises. In some parts this groove looks more like a 

 split, as if one had drawn the point of a knife down the stalk and 

 the edges of the wound had gaped open. The groove becomes 

 gradually larger from its origin to the first junction with the 

 connecting branch ; it then suddenly increases in size and remains 

 large between the two junctions, after which it is less definite and 

 distinct. 



It is important to notice that the ends of the connecting branch 

 are immediately adjacent to the groove, and both spring from the 

 same side of it, which is very strong evidence that the branch is in 

 some way connected with it ; but the groove is large enough to 

 take in many threads of the size of the little connecting branch, 

 which is not much thicker than a strong sewing thread. 



There would be no great difficulty, in the case of a plant or tree 

 sufficiently large to manipulate, in grafting a branch in this position, 

 so as to join any point of the stem to a second point higher up ; and 

 such cases do occasionally, I believe, occur in nature, where a branch 



