218 PERSISTENCE OF JUVENILE FORMS. 
occasionally happens that the plant continues to form 
throughout its existence leaves such as are usuall 
produced only i ina young state; thus M. Gubler (Bull. 
Soc. Bot., Fr.,’ vol. vin, 1861, p. 527) describes a plant of 
Pinus pines i in which the primordial, usually transitory, 
foliage was permanent, leaves of the ordinary shape not 
being developed at all. It more often happens that 
some only of the leaves retain their young form while 
others assume other shapes, see fig. 115. This happens 
frequently in the larch and constantly in the Chinese 
juniper when it has arrived at a considerable age. In 
Cupressus funebris two forms of leaves may often be 
found on the same plant, the one representing the 
juvenile state, the other the more developed condition. 
What is very singular, is that a cutting taken from the 
branch with leaves of the young form erows up into 
a shrub bearing leaves of no other shape, so that an 
ordinary observer unacquainted with the history of 
the plant would imagine that he had to deal with two 
distinct species. This fact is the more interesting when 
compared with the alternation of generations which 
takes place among the lower animals. 
The regular development of all the parts of the 
flower in a plant habitually producing irregular flowers 
is referred to under the head of Peloria, but it still 
remains to consider those examples in which some 
only of the parts of the flower are affected in this 
manner.’ Most of these cases are elsewhere referred 
to in this volume under the particular form of mal- 
formation assumed; but the following case may here 
be noticed as not coming under any of the previous 
heads. It is an instance recorded by Professor 
Babington (‘ Phytologist,’ August, 1853), and in which 
the pod of Medicago maculata, which is usually rolled 
up like a snail shell and provided with spines, was 
sickle-shaped and unarmed. 
1 See a paper of Professor C. Morren’s on “Floral Stesomy” in 
‘Bull. Acad. Belg.,’ t. xix, part u, p. 519. 
