542 



APPENDIX A. 



the dried specimen, will give an idea of this Angelica. At a is 

 shown a single flower partially changed ; in the umbellule marked 

 b, one of the rays bears a secondary umbellule ; and there may 

 be seen at c and d, several such over-developments. 



But the most conclusive instance is that of a Cow-Parsnep, in 

 which a single terminal umbel, besides the transformations already 

 mentioned, exhibits higher degrees of such transformations.* The 

 components of this complex growth are ; — three central umbellules, 

 abnormal only in minor points ; one umbellule, external to these, 

 which is partially changed into an umbel ; one rather more out of the 

 centre, which is so far metamorphosed as to be more an umbel than 

 an umbellule : nine peripheral clusters formed by the development 

 of umbellules into umbels, some of which are partially compounded 

 still further. Examined in detail, these structures present the fol- 

 lowing facts : — 1. The innermost umbellule is normal, save in having 

 a peripheral flower of which one member (apparently a petal) is 

 transformed into a flower-bud. 2. The next umbellule, not quite so 

 central, has one of its peripheral flowers made monstrous by the 

 growth of a bud from the base of the calyx. 3. The third of the 

 central umbellules has two abnormal outer flowers. One of them 

 carries a flower-bud on its edge, in place of a foliar member. 

 The other is half flower and half umbellule : being composed of 

 three petals, three stamens, and five flower- buds growing where 

 the other petals and stamens should grow. 4. Outside of these 

 umbellules comes one of the mixed clusters. Its five central 

 flowers are normal. Surrounding these are several flowers trans- 

 formed in different degrees : one having a stamen partially changed 

 into a flower bud. And then, at the periphery of this mixed 

 cluster, come three complete umbellules and an incomplete one in 

 which some petals and stamens of the original flower remain. 

 5. A mixed cluster, in which the umbel-structure predominates, 

 stands next. Its three central flowers are normal. Surrounding 

 them are five flowers over-developed in various ways, like those 

 already described. And on its periphery are seven complete um- 

 bellules in place of flowers ; besides an incomplete umbellule that 

 contains traces of the original flower, one of them being a petal 

 imperfectly twisted up into a bud. 6. Of the nine external 

 clusters, in which the development of simple into compound um- 

 bels is most decided, nearly all present anomalies. Three of them 

 have each a central flower untransformed ; and in others, the central 



* For the information of those who may wish to examine metamorphoses 

 of these kinds, I may here state that I have found nearly all the examples 

 described, in the neighbourhood of the sea — the last-named, on the shore of 

 Locheil, near Fort William. Whether it is that I have sought more dili- 

 gently for cases when in such localities, or whether it is that the sea-air 

 favours that excessive nutrition whence these transformations result, I am 

 unable to say. 



