Polycephalic Poppies 373 



combined with another deviation in the poppies. 

 This is the growing together of some of the 

 altered stamens so as to constitute smaller or 

 larger connate groups. Often two are united, 

 sometimes three, four or more. Flowers with 

 numerous altered stamens are seldom wholly 

 free from this most undesirable secondary 

 anomaly. I call it undesirable with respect 

 to experiments on the variability of the 

 character. For it may easily be seen that 

 while it is feasible to count the stamens 

 even when converted into pistils, it is not 

 possible when groups of them are more or 

 less intimately united into single bodies. This 

 combination makes all enumeration difficult and 

 inaccurate and often wholly unreliable. In 

 such cases the observation is limited to a compu- 

 tation of the degree of the change, rather than 

 to a strict nmnerical inquiry. Happily the re- 

 sponses to the experimental influences are so 

 marked and distinct that even this method of de- 

 scribing them has proved to be wholly sufficient. 



In extreme instances I have seen all the 

 changed stamens of a flower of the opium-poppy 

 united into a single body, so as to form a close 

 sheath all around the central ovary. Lesser 

 sheaths, surrounding one-half or one-third of 

 the capsule are of course less rarely met with. . 



Leaving this description of the outer appear- 



