i 7 8 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



SOME ABNORMAL PLANTS. 

 By John T. Carrington. 



r\NE of the most remarkable of many abnormal 

 ^ plants received during the past month is the 

 case of proliferation in the flower spikes of broad - 

 leafed plantain, which we have illustrated on this 

 page. It was found by Mr. M. P. Richardson, of 

 Accrington, and forwarded to us by our corre- 

 spondent, Mr. Isaac Stephenson, of that town. It 

 will be observed that the ordinary spikes have 

 become bunched in the manner represented. 



Mr. Roet. W. Chidwick, 

 of 4, Dagmar Street, 

 Worthing, writes as fol- 

 lows : 



1 I am sending you 

 another monstrous growth. 

 this time a cultivated 

 Scabious. You will find 

 enclosed four heads in 

 different stages of develop- 

 ment. In the one marked 

 No. 1, you will observe 

 that the growing point has 

 extended right through the 

 capitulum forming first a 

 whorl of leaves, then an 

 extention of peduncle, then 

 another whorl of leaves, 

 and lastly, at its summit, 

 two or three incomplete 

 flowers. The plant from 

 which the enclosed were 

 cut produced about thirty 

 heads of flowers all more 

 or less malformed after the 

 manner of No. 1. Is this 

 a case, think you, of rever- 

 sion ? At some time in the 

 early history of Scabious, 

 was it not possible that 

 the inflorescence assumed 

 a different form to that of 

 its present ? I think it 

 probable, and the present 

 specimen seems to add 

 weight to the surmise, 

 that the early ancestors of 

 the family formed their 

 leaves in whorls at the 

 nodes of the stem, pro- 

 ducing their flowers in 



axillary clusters, after the manner of the genus 

 Lamium of the present time. If so, this is a very 

 interesting case to the studeut of development. 

 Mr. Grant Allen says, in his interesting ' Story of 

 the Plants,' that small flowers co-operate and form 

 a head in order to attract insects, and thus insure 

 more perfect fertilization. This case in point seems 

 to add weight to the theorv, as the co-operating 

 flowers form a most beautiful and attractive head 

 in Scabious, and an object by which insects are 

 sure to be attracted. On the other hand, the 

 solitary flower in the axil of the leaves forming the 

 whorl is so insignificant as to be easily passed bv. 

 Then to render fertilization still more sure, the 

 aggregation of flowers are further enhanced, bv 



Absormal Plantain, Plantago major 



adding to their beauty of form, a delicious scent, 

 which is so enticing to many insects." 



Mr. G. B. Nielson, Bank of Scotland House, 

 Glasgow, says: "A few days ago I discovered, 

 near Arbroath, an abnormal flower of Lychnis 

 vespertina (the evening campion). The specimen 

 comprised two flowers in one, having the stamens 

 in two complete sets of ten each, while the calyx 

 was only eight-cleft, and the petals numbering nine, 

 one of which was inserted between the two sets of 

 stamens. There were of course no pistils. The 

 other flowers on the same 

 plant were quite normal." 



Mr. John Brown, of 7, 

 North End, Wisbech, says : 

 " Having been much in- 

 terested in the examples of 

 sports and the abnormal 

 growth of plants figured in 

 your journal, I now send 

 you two heads of the yellow 

 loosestrife (Lysimachia vul- 

 garis), as further examples. 

 The loosestrife has been in 

 my garden now for thirty 

 years. I brought it origi- 

 nally from Wicken Fen. I 

 daresay many of your 

 readers know the locality, 

 and have enjoyed collecting 

 either insects or plants 

 in that unique hunting- 

 ground. I also send a 

 plume of a common reed 

 (Ph ragm ites com m u n is), 

 which I gathered yesterday. 

 In this case the plume is 

 only about half the usual 

 length, consequently the 

 spikelets are much crowded 

 together, giving quite a 

 different character to the 

 plume. All the heads, 

 twelve in number, were 

 like the one sent. There- 

 fore one would be inclined 

 to think it is a seedling 

 sport, from the ordinary 

 plants, which were growing 

 all around in abundance." 



The loosestrife plants are 



cases of cohesion of two 



stems, plainly showing the 



branching of each stem. The} - divide close to the 



top into two flat heads closely attached, in shape 



much like the familiar " cocks-comb " plant. 



Mr. Henwood Teague, of Penzance, forwards 

 a " treble-headed " sunflower on one stalk, but it 

 is really only two flowers on one stem, one being 

 broadly elongated and pinched in at the centre. 



Mrs. Dora Twopenny, of Woodstock, Sitting- 

 bourne, sends an interesting case of fasciation of 

 two stems of a plant of hawk weed, each side 

 throwing off branches and having two larger 

 flowers at the top. 



