Studies of Teratological Phenomena. 89 



two segments; in other cases an actual increase in number occurs and 

 a single stamen may have as high as six. Petalody and pistillody of 

 the stamens are rarely present. In the former case, the petals are 

 very slightly developed; in the latter, three or four rudimentary pistils 

 occur, developing from almost any point on the anther -sac. In an 

 examination of thousands of flowers of this race, I have found petalody, 

 pistillody and calycanthemy only in a dozen or so cases. Abortion of 

 pollen (contabescence) is common as well as various distorted conditions 

 of the anthers. 



The pistil frequently was wholly or partly incapable of functioning, 

 owing to various forms of distortion, including proliferation, staminody, 

 pleiotaxy, and meiophylly of the style and ovary-locules. The increase 

 in number of locules ranged between 2 (rarel}') and 21, the mode being 

 about 4. The st3^1e was often shortened and twisted. Ovary-locules 

 were so crowded at times, owing to polyphylly that many were abortive, 

 resulting in a much distorted capsule. From 2 — 4 pistils (pleiotaxy) 

 were often present in the same flower, sometimes all capable of 

 functioning ; in other cases, all but one abortive. Sterility was present, 

 but in the majority of cases, examination of a mature capsule demon- 

 strated fertility to be almost perfect. 



Cytology. In a preliminary paper, the normal conditions were 

 briefly described for both this abnormal strain and the normal (402). 

 The chromosome number was 48, reduced in the germ -cells to 24. 

 Cytological variations in the normal (402) were rare, either as to 

 chromosomes and their number or in other structures. Many anthers 

 of the abnormal race when examined cytologically were entirely normal 

 in all their maturation phases. Others showed evidences of almost total 

 sterility through premature breaking down of the archesporial tissue, 

 while still others were only partially sterile. Abnormal variation in 

 the rate of progress of maturation stages was often characteristic of 

 the abnormal anthers. Atrophy and disintegration following physiological 

 abnormalities causes the not infrequent appearance of only a very few 

 mature pollen grains in the mature anthei'. This breaking down of the 

 pollen mother-cells began in the early prophases of the first division, 

 and persisted as late as the prophases in the second division. Ab- 

 normalities were not as common in the second reduction division as in 

 the first. Deformed nuclei were common in the first maturation division. 

 The nucleoli and chromatin were not infrequently clumped together as 

 though overheating on the slide had taken place. Nuclear fragmentation 



