Harris — Polygamy and Certain Floral Abnormalities. 197 



The figure given by Todd of the abnormal S. tuberosum 

 shows a marked difference in the anthers. He does not 

 figure the occurrence he describes in 8. CaroUnense, and I 

 have never been so fortunate as to discover such an example 

 in many hundreds of flowers examined. Of all these, the 

 anthers have been so nearly equal that the difference, if 

 present, was not readily detected with the naked eye. In a 

 large percentage of the flowers, however, the lower stamens 

 do project a little beyond the upper, owing to the oblique 

 rather than vertical position of the whole androecium. In jS, 

 sisymbrifolhan^ where the filaments and anthers are longer, the 

 stamens are a little more declined from the exact longitudinal 

 axis of the flower. The same is true of jS. tuberosum and has 

 already been recorded by Mueller, who says in The Fertilisa- 

 Hon of Floioers : ' * All the stamens bend very slightly down- 

 ward, and the lower anthers project somewhat in advance 

 of the others." It seems not improbable that the normal 

 projection of the lower stamens in S. CaroUnense was mis- 

 taken by Todd for a real structural difference. 



In this place some of the taxonomic literature on 8. hetero- 

 doxum Dunal is of interest. This species was first described 

 by Dunal* who placed it with 8. coimutum Lam. and 8. ros- 

 tratum Dun. in a section devoted to species with unequal 

 anthers, giving as the description of the anthers for this 

 species: ** Stamina 5, antherae 4 luteae, interdum nunc inde 

 nigrescens subrectae, 5 decumbens, productissima, apice cor- 

 niculata, saepius nigricans, stylus rectus. Stigma bilobum." 

 In his monograph he regards it as one of his species, but in 

 his Histoire des 8olanum he cites ** 8. heterodoxum DeCand. 

 Hort. Monsp. Mss. Tabula picta " and gives as habitat ** in 

 Horto Monspeliense cultum " where he saw living material. 

 His figures on PI. 25 represent the flowers as small, scarcely 

 half an inch in diameter, hardly zygomorphic, the stamens 

 not very unequal. In his 8ynopsis^ Dunal says: ** Corollis 

 subregularibus, antheris parvis declinatis, infima longiori 



* Dunal. Histoire des Solanum. 1813. 



t Dunal, M. F. Solanorum Generumque aflSnium Synopsis. Montpellier. 

 1816. p. 46. 



