[June, 1858.] 449 



CONTEIBUTIONS TO VEGETABLE TERATOLOGY. 



5y Maxwell T. Masters, Lecturer on Botany, St. George's 

 Hospital, etc. etc. 



(.With a Plate.) 



The importance of Teratology as one of the most efficient aids 

 in unravelling the problems of Morphology, is now so fully esta- 

 blished, that no apology need be oJfFered on this account, for 

 bringing the subject under th^ notice of our readers. The writer 

 trusts that the following account of some instances of deviation 

 from the ordinary condition of the plants mentioned will not be 

 without interest, and that it may serve as an addition to the 

 number of similar communications made at various times by 

 other observers. 



The homology existing between a flower and a branch is well 

 shown in two specimens of Azalea,"^ in which all the peduncles of 

 the umbellate inflorescence, except one, were represented by a 

 number of leaf-bearing branches, which arose from the axils of 

 certain spathulate leafy bracts. Some of the bracts passed by a 

 series of intermediate forms into the condition of hairs (fig. 2). 

 The flower presented in both instances a reflexed, five-parted 

 calyx, and a curiously deflected corolla (fig. 1), whose tube, im- 

 mediately above its origin, was abruptly bent downwards for 

 nearly half an inch, and then rose and expanded into a five-lobed 

 limb. The other portions of the flower presented nothing un- 

 usual in their appearance. 



ON THE NATURALIZED PLANTS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



[We are indebted to a correspondent for the following abstract from the ' Geo- 

 graphic Botanique ' of De OandoUe.] 



The perusal of De Candolle's valuable article upon the na- 

 turalized plants of Britain having led to an examination of the 

 opinions held upon this subject by our three principal authorities, 

 it has been thought that the details may be acceptable as pre- 

 senting in a small compass a concise view both of the differences 

 in opinion among the English writers, and of the manner in 

 * See the Plate facing this page ; fig. 2, transition of peduncles into branches, etc. 



N. S, VOL. II. 3 M 



