448 Vegetable Monstrosities and Races. 



cannot now tell under what influences they were formed ; but 

 as the species are all domestic, it is probable that some, if not 

 all, have been produced by cultivation. Among them is a race 

 of common gourds (Cucurbita pepo), in which the tendrils 

 convert themselves into a sort of branches bearing leaves, 

 flowers, and often fruits. There are also numerous races of 

 the same species producing deformed fruits, warty, and parti-" 

 coloured, and which transmit their peculiarities with their seed 

 so long as they are not modified by crossing. 



A still more remarkable example is afforded by a small 

 race of pumpkins, G. maxima, which we have received from 

 China, and observed for many years in the Museum. It differs 

 from the typical form of the species by the ovary, and the 

 fruit being entirely free, and the tube of the calyx being 

 reduced to a sort of disk (plateau), serving for the support of 

 the carpels ; notwithstanding, the complete adhesion of the 

 ovary to the tube of the calyx is stated by authors to be an 

 essential character of the family of the Cucurbitacese. This 

 example shows how great the extent of variation may be, and 

 what fixity they may acquire when once produced. 



The next fact of which I have to speak is quite recent, and 

 has already been brought before the Academy by Dr. Godron, 

 Professor of Botany, at Nancy. In 1 861 M. Godron found, in 

 a crop of Datura tatula, a species with very spiny fruit, a 

 single individual, in which the capsule was perfectly smooth, 

 and unarmed. Seeds taken from this capsule gave, in 1 862, a 

 batch of plants, all of which reproduced the peculiarities of 

 the individual from which they sprung. From their seed 

 grew a third generation, similarly smooth, and in 1865 and 

 1866 I saw at the Museum the fourth and fifth generation 

 of this new race, in all more than 100 individuals, not one of 

 which manifested the least tendency to reproduce the spinous 

 character of the species. Crossed with this last by M. 

 Godron himself, the unarmed race produced mule plants, which 

 in the succeeding generation returned to the spiny form, and 

 the unarmed form, being, in fact, genuine hybrids, endowed 

 with fertility. M. Godron, from these facts, refers to one 

 species, the Datura Stramonium, D. lazvis (of Bcrtoloni, not of 

 Linnaous), and D. Tatula, three constant forms previously 

 regarded as good species, and adding to it D. Tatula- inermis, 

 discovered by himself, and so to speak, born under his eyes. 

 These four distinct forms have arisen by variation from a 

 single type, not one of them wanting in any character assign- 

 able to true species. 



Here a point presents itself, to which I would call the 

 attention of all who believe in the mutability of specific forms, 

 and who attribute the origin of actual species to simple modifica- 



