446 Vegetable Monstrosities and Races. 



be sufficiently seen from the changes undergone in twenty-one 

 hours in the group represented in Figs. 1 and 2 in the Plate. 

 And the writer has often expressed his opinion that, along, 

 perhaps, with other allied agencies, these changes are in some 

 way connected with alterations in the magnetic conditions of 

 the solar photosphere — an opinion with which the theory of* 

 planetary configurations and influences is quite in harmony ; as 

 also may be many other forces believed to be in operation on 

 the solar surface, and probably also within the interior mass 

 likewise. 



In many respects, lastly, the forces they exhibit are as 

 mighty in their operation as they are mysterious in . their 

 origin. We cannot doubt that, on the whole, they are 

 necessary and beneficial to the several worlds which con- 

 stitute the dominion of the sun; though they are occult 

 and hidden in their nature ; and may very possibly at times, 

 and at the ordering of the Most High, rule over conditions of 

 plague and scarcity, as well as of health and prosperity ; for 

 these circumstances, we can scarcely doubt, are in intimate con- 

 nection with those terrestrial, magnetic, and atmospheric con- 

 ditions over which the sun has been bidden to exercise his vast 

 and ever- varying, and, generally, benignant influences. 



VEGETABLE MONSTROSITIES AND EACES. 



BY CH. XAUDIN. 

 (From Comptes Mendus.) 



The discussion recently excited by MM. Dareste and Sanson, 

 as to whether monstrosities in the animal kingdom can give 

 rise to distinct races, recalls to my mind teratological facts, 

 which appear to demonstrate that this may be the case in the 

 vegetable world. 



To avoid doubt, it may be well to explain that I use the 

 word monstrosity in its ordinary botanical sense, that of 

 notable departure from forms, that are typical, or reputed to be 

 such. There is a marked distinction between monstrosities 

 incompatible with reproduction, and those which do not impair 

 the reproductive faculty. It is of the last only I have now to 

 speak. 



Well attested facts seem to me to place beyond doubt that 

 considerable anomalies in the vegetable kingdom, that are 

 usually classed amongst teratological facts, are faithfully 

 transmitted from one generation to another, and become the 



