142 Miscellaneous. 
strosities in the conformation of their fronds, which by that means 
acquire very singular figures. These monstrosities are sought 
for by the fanciers of these plants, because they consider 
them an improvement; and they were for a long time rare and 
bore a high price in horticultural commerce. Now-a-days they 
are produced in as great abundance as can be desired, by simply 
sowing the spores, on condition that these spores are taken from the 
altered parts of the fructifying frond. Where the frond remains in 
the normal state, the spores only give origin to normal plants; but 
those of the monstrous portions of the same fronds reproduce with 
certainty plants affected with the same kind of alteration. This 
mode of propagation has been in use for several years; and the fact 
of the transmission of monstrosities by sowing, in the Ferns, has 
never yet been invalidated by experiment. 
Very considerable anomalies, which may be classed among terato- 
logical facts with as much reason as in the two preceding instances, 
may be observed in the three species of alimentary gourds—plants 
subjected to cultivation from time immemorial, and which have never 
been found in the wild state. ‘These anomalies are peculiar in this 
respect, that they characterize very well-marked and persistent races, 
are preserved notwithstanding changes of place and climate, and 
even partially resist crossing with other races of the same species. 
The date of their origin is unknown, nor do we know under what 
influences they were formed; but the species being here entirely 
reduced to a state of domesticity, it is very probable that some of 
these races, if not all, were actually produced by cultivation. Such, 
among others, is a race of the common gourd (Cucurbita pepo), in 
which the tendrils are all converted into a kind of branches which 
give origin to leaves, flowers, and often to fruits; such are also, in 
the same species, those numerous races with deformed, warty, and 
oddly coloured fruits, which are preserved by sowings, always in a 
similar condition, so long as intercrossings do not step in to modify 
them. A still more remarkable example is that of a small race of 
pumpkin (C. maxima) which we have received from China and ob- 
served for several years at the Museum. Resembling the type of 
the species in the organs of vegetation, it differs therefrom singularly 
in the ovary and the fruit, which have become almost entirely free, 
the tube of the calyx being reduced into a sort of plateau serving to 
support the carpels. Nevertheless the complete adhesion of the ovary 
to the tube of the calyx, in which it is deeply immersed, is given by all 
authors as one of the essential characters of the family Cucurbitacee. 
From this example we see how great may be the extent of the varia- 
tions and also what a degree of fixity these variations may acquire 
when once they are produced. 
The fact of which I have still to speak is quite recent, and has 
already been brought under the notice of the Academy by Dr. 
Godron, Professor of Botany at Nancy (Comptes Rendus, 1866, i. 
p- 379). I refer to it here because my own observations confirm it 
in all points, and especially because it shows us very clearly how a 
new race may originate from an anomaly. In 1861, Dr. Godron 
