ABNORMAL " FLOWERS " OF HELENIUM AUTUMNALE, L. 943 



ABNORMAL "FLOWERS" OF HELENIUM AUTUMNALE, L. 



By W. C. Worsdell, F.R.H.S., F.L.S. 



Mr. F. Crisp, of Friar Park, Henley-on-Thames, kindly selected and 

 forwarded to me on request some capitula, or flower-heads, of the above- 

 named plant of which he possessed several specimens, some or all of which, 

 since August last, when they first flowered, were badly affected. Stras- 

 burger * has described abnormal flowers, with special reference to the 

 ovule, in Helenium Hoopesii A. Gray. Masters,t in various places, has 

 brought forward similar abnormalities to those I am about to mention. 



Fig. 209. — Normal "Flowers." 



No really complete and clear account has, however, ever yet been given 

 of the so-called " sports " in this genus, which I now propose doing. 



These abnormal flowers exhibit two chief phenomena, viz. virescence 

 of organs usually coloured or colourless, Midi proliferation of axes usually 

 extremely short or suppressed, both these constituting parts of the general 

 vegetative development of organs usually confined to subserving functions 

 connected with reproduction. 



Amongst the malformed flowers there were a few which were fairly 



* Angiospermen und Gymnospermen, 1879, p. 43. 



t " Sidelights on the Structure of Composites," Journ. Bot. 1878. 



Gardeners' Chronicle, 1885, ii., p. 621. 



Pflanzen-Teratologie (trans, by U. Dammer). 1886, pp. 299, 388. 

 Gardeners' Chronicle, 1902, Nov. 29, figs. 138, 139, p. 405. 



