182 
in certain species this method of reproduction is practically the 
normal one.* Such forms have sometimes been designated as 
viviparous, and the term is extended beyond the cases in which 
there is an actual vegetative reproduction, to those in which there 
is merely a teratological foliation of the spikelet. 
Chloranthy is a term applied to the transformation of the 
parts of the flower into foliar organs, and this term might per- 
haps more properly be applied to many cases which have been 
described as vivipary, not only in grasses but among other 
monocotyledons. 
The purpose of this note is, however, not to discuss the litera- 
ture of this phenomenon, but merely to call attention to a rather 
remarkable case in Euchlaena mexicana, supposedly the ancestor 
of Indian corn. 
One of the terminal staminate inflorescences of a small plot of 
plants grown in the Missouri Botanical Gardent in the summer 
of 1903 was noticed by my friend Dr. С. С. Hedgecock to be 
highly abnormal and-he kindly placed the accompanying photo- 
graph in my hands. It shows a condition of excessive develop- 
ment of the glumes. 
To determine whether these teratological spikelets were capable 
of continued development, a number of them were potted up in 
* See Goebel, Organographie der Pflanzen, Pp. 153, 159. 
mi T agas were сена as ee de СОЄ: sie: a т in San Luis 
e form would 
ges into ordinary maiz e. Ав exami ined the tenth of September most pi the stalks 
were in a vigorous green condition, the pistillate inflorescences not yet mature 
nodes below the ears. The same is true in my material, as many as the lower 
thirteen nodes being well supplied with these organs. 
Whatever their ancestry- whether pure ЕЁ. mexicana or with some admixture 
ssouri Botanical Garden plants were very close to the typical 
The immaturity of the pistillate inflorescence at frost precludes the settling of 
some of the minor details. 
