99 
Owing to these influences Teratology has long outgrown the 
curio-stage and actually become an important part of bota- 
nical science. 
The abstract about to be given is offered merely as a first 
attempt at a tropical teratology. The cases to be recorded are 
so far I know new, but the deviations themselves may, at 
least for the greater part, have been observed in other plants. 
Ours is purely descriptive work, and does not pretend to satisfy 
higher claims. The object, indeed, of the present publication 
is simply to draw the attention of such botanists as should 
make a shorter or longer stay in the tropics, to the terato- 
logical phenomena in those countries, and to induce them to 
collect specimens and draw up descriptions, which may prove 
of great use as material for a future survey like Prof. Penzig’s. 
gS 
Leaves. 
The disturbance with which we begin our survey, consists 
in a sudden standstill of the growth of the midrib and the 
concomitant modification of the apex. The leaves of the Tulip- 
tree (Liriodendron tulipifera) and the leaflets of Bauhinia pre- 
sent these peculiarities normally. Another result is the altera- 
tion of the ordinary venation together with the increased 
growth of the lateral parts of the lamina. The following des- 
cription of the diagrams will illustrate this. 
§ 1. Midrib stunted. 
Fig. 12 represents a normal leaf of Hernandia sonora, L 
(family Hernandiaceae, allied to the Daphnoideae) of which the 
principal properties are sufficiently obvious. Of the abnormal 
leaves in my possession, I have delineated one, of which the 
midrib has been checked almost at the very beginning of its 
development (fig. 1%). On the other hand the lateral nerves 
show a stronger development together with the lobes to which 
