POLYGAMY AND CERTAIN FLORAL ABNORMALI- 

 TIES IN SOLANUM.* 



J. Arthur Harris. 



The genus Solanum is generally characterized as hermaph- 

 rodite. No indication to the contrary is given in Gray's 

 Manual, Britton and Brown's Illustrated Flora, Britton's 

 Manual, Chapman's Flora of the Southern United States, 

 Bentham's Flora Australiensis, Hooker's Flora of British 

 India, or Trimen's Handbook of the Flora of Ceylon. No 

 indication of any but perfect flowers is given in the treat- 

 ment of the genus in Bentham and Hooker's Genera Flan- 

 tarum, or Engler and Prantl's Naturliche Pflanzenfamilien, 



While the presence of polygamy is infrequently noted in 

 characterizing the genus in general systematic works, it has 

 by no means remained unnoticed, for the abortion of the 

 pistil has been recorded in the description of many species, 

 and, indeed, has been several times considered in the descrip- 

 tion of the genus. Dunal, in 1813 {Histoire des Solanu7n), 

 mentions sterile flowers in his characterization of the genus 

 and in another place in the same work enters into a quite 

 detailed discussion of the phenomenon, stating that a large 

 number of Solanums have fertile and sterile flowers which 

 are usually smaller and owe their sterility to the failure of 

 the pistil to develop, it being shorter than the stamens, 

 usually of about the length of the filaments, and so not in a 

 position to receive the pollen, while in the fertile flowers the 

 pistil is at least as long as the stamens so that the stigma is 

 placed in the most favorable position to secure the pollen. 

 Furthermore, he says, in some species provided with prickles 

 the calyx of the fertile flowers is provided with these append- 

 ages while the sterile ones are without them ; thus in the 



♦ Presented to The Academy of Science of St. Louis, November 2, 1903. 



(185) 



