231 

 ABNORMALITY IN LILIUM PHILADELPHICUM 



By C. B. Atwell 



Lilium philadelphicum L. grows abundantly along the shores, 

 and especially in the moist grassy openings among cedars and 

 balsams immediately back of the old beach, of Bois Blanc Island, 

 in the Straits of Mackinac. Individual plants producing three 

 flowers each are found not infrequently, and plants having two 

 flowers are quite frequently seen. One which appeared to be of 

 the latter variety, collected July 12, 191 5, and preserved in 

 formalin, proved to be an extremely interesting example of 

 abnormality. One flower is normal in every respect, while the 

 second has a pedicel thickened and grooved, as if made up of 

 two pedicels grown together. Its flower appears to be double, 

 but closer observation reveals these facts: there are five outer 

 and five inner segments of the perianth, and each member of 

 each of these series is normal as in single flowers; there are two 



Fig. I. Abnormality in Lilium. philadelphicum. 



separate and distinct pistils, each with seed-case, style, and 

 stigma, quite as in normal forms; the stamens are ten in number, 

 five in a cycle around each pistil ; three of the stamens lie between 

 the pistils, and slightly cohere by their filaments for the distance 

 of five millimeters upward from their bases. Thus, it seems, this 

 freak lily has one of its flowers on the normal "plan of three," 

 and the other on the "plan of five," except for the two pistils with 

 their three-celled ovaries. The cross-plan of the flower serves 



