• ANOMALOUS VEGETABLE STRUCTURES. 311 



CONSIDERATIONS RESPECTING ANOMALOUS VEGETA- 

 BLE STRUCTURES. 



BY REV. WILLIAM HINCKS, F. L. S. 



PBOrSSSOB OE IfATUEAL HISTOET, T7NIYEESITX COLLEGE, TOEONTO. 



Read before the Canadian Institute, March 6th, 1858. 



The rational interest belonging to the abnormal forms which occa- 

 sionally offer themselves to our notice in the vegetable kingdom, and the 

 possibility of applying them to the detection or illustration of impor- 

 tant general principles are now generally recognized, and we could 

 scarcely open any recent Botanical work without finding some attention 

 bestowed upon the subject ; yet it appears tome that justice has hardly 

 been done to it, either by the simplicity and clearness of its treatment, 

 or by exhibiting it as affording one of the most striking and attractive 

 aspects of Botanical science. Having had my thoughts turned to the 

 subject, soon after it was first brought into notice ; having diligently 

 collected vegetable anomalies for a series of years, and having at one 

 time possessed a very remarkable assemblage of them, some of which I 

 have from time to time described in communications to the British 

 Association and the Linncean Society, I propose to lay before the 

 Institute a summary of the results of my studies in this department. 

 I have not neglected any aids to be derived from the labors of others, 

 but I have endeavoured to look into nature for myself, and to form 

 my conclusions by careful induction from recorded and observed facts. 



Some little novelty there may be both in my method of treatment 

 and in the theories proposed, and where I agree most closely with 

 others, I do so as one who has watched the progress of opinion on 

 these points almost from the beginning. I have collected evidence for 

 myself as well as weighed what was produced by others, and rest my 

 belief on my own acquaintance with the facts, not on any authority 

 howevever respectable. 



All intelligent study of abnormal structures proceeds on the assump- 

 tion that they are not mere random and insulated facts, but exemplify 

 the operation of some force or tendency which belongs to the being, 

 and is constantly active, but in ordinary cases is either kept in check 

 by other influences, or allowed to manifest itself more fully than in the 

 special instance. Hence the anomaly is not unmeaning, but may be 

 made to unfold a hidden truth respecting the parts, at least rudimen- 



