15° 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



SOME ABNORMAL PLANTS. 

 By John T. Carrington. 



TTC 7E have to thank several correspondents for 

 * » sending abnormal examples of different 

 species of plants. Mr. George C. Griffiths, of 43, 

 Caledonia Place, Clifton, Bristol, forwarded an 

 abnormal inflorescence of cultivated rose, gathered 

 by Mr. William Mullany from his garden at 

 Cotham. The rest of the flowers on the tree from 

 which it was cut were of the usual character. It 

 had the appearance of a somewhat loosely grown 

 red rose, the bud of another flower springing from 

 the centre. This appears to be a case of prolifera- 

 tion somewhat similar to one figured by 

 Dr. Maxwell Masters, F.R.S., in "Vegetable 

 Teratology," the difference being that in his case 

 both portions of the stem showed the inflorescence 

 at the same time. As in that instance, Mr. Griffiths' 

 specimen showed no sign of the immature hip 

 under the lower flower, 

 and the stamens were 

 wanting ; the axis was 

 prolonged for the sup- 

 plementary flower. The 

 lower inflorescence be- 

 ing a case of prolifera- 

 tion. 



On July 4th, Mr. 

 George Parish, 124, 

 Kingston Road, Oxford, 

 sent an abnormal straw- 

 berry, of which we give 

 an illustration. The 

 fruit was quite normal 

 excepting for a little 



greenness of colour at the point. As will be seen from 

 the drawing, two little flowers, which are figured 

 natural size, were growing from the apex of the 

 fruit. As Mr. Parish says in his letter, it is not 

 uncommon to see bracts emerging in this manner, 

 but it is unusual to see flowers as fully developed. 

 When the specimen reached us all the petals were 

 still attached, but on arrival at the artist's house 

 some had become lost and have therefore not 

 been drawn. We do not find that Dr. Masters 

 refers to a similar case, though he figures one of 

 median leafy proliferation, representing the thala- 

 mus of a strawberry prolonged beyond the fruit 

 into a small leaf-bearing branch. The bunch of 

 leaves in his figure are somewhat larger than the 

 fruit. The difference in appearance between Mr. 

 Parish's specimen and that figured by Dr. 

 Masters, is that where the flowers appear in our 

 figure there is a rather large rosette of small 

 green leaves. 



Mr. Charles Bond Smith, of Weston House, 



Abnormal Strawberry. 



Potton, Beds., has sent a monstrous fuchsia flower, 

 the monstrosity consisting of an enlargement of the 

 calyx, growing from one side. 



During a ramble in the neighbourhood of North- 

 wood, near Watford, at the end of June, I found a 

 case of cohesion of two branches and their flowers, 

 in a specimen of ox-eye daisy, which is figured on 

 page 151. It will be noticed that two branches have 

 become joined together, and remained united up to 

 the point of flowering. The inflorescence of each is 

 situated at the back of the other. It was necessary 

 in the drawing, to slightly turn the right hand 

 flower forward, to show its position. 



Mr. Robt. W. Chidwick, 4, Dagmar Street, 

 Worthing, has sent an abnormal pyrethrum which 

 has grown in his garden upon a plant which has 

 bloomed freely. Upon examination we find that 

 the peduncle is entirely 

 suppressed in three 

 flowers on the stem, 

 probably through ex- 

 haustion, otherwise it is 

 normal. There was, 

 therefore, not any sign 

 of stalks to the flowers, 

 which appeared to grow 

 directly out of the stem, 

 in each instance just 

 above the axis of a leaf. 

 Mr. C. A. Briggs, of 

 Leatherhead, Surrey, 

 has sent a " double 

 raspberry," two fruits 

 being joined together on one stem. The remains 

 of the bracts are visible between the fruits, which 

 have joined at intervals round the edges of two- 

 thirds of the side of each. The effect is to form 

 a flattened obtuse pyramid, the apex being at the 

 attachment with the stalk. The raspberry trees 

 from which it was taken have not previously pro- 

 duced a specimen of this character, but it is 

 doubtless a form which not infrequently occurs. 



We have also received reports of twin goose- 

 berries having occurred rather frequently this 

 season. This doubling of some fruit is not, we 

 imagine, of rare occurrence, but is an interesting 

 feature of vegetable teratology. As we went to 

 press, we received from Mr. Henwood Teague, of 

 Penzance, a sunflower, with two flowers on one stem, 

 somewhat like the ox-eye daisy above described. 



We desire to take this opportunity of thanking 

 Miss Juliet Hensman for these and other drawings 

 which she has been kind enough to give to the 

 readers of Science-Gossip. 



