225 



DESCEIPTION OF SOME VEGETABLE MONSTROSITIES. 



By Francois Crepin, , 

 Professor of Botany, 



( Continued from page 217. J 



IV. Syringa vulgaris, L. 

 (Fascia.) 



At the suTninit of a cylindrical stem of about seven millimetres (1-30 

 of an inch.) in diameter, on which the buds aifected an anomalous dispo- 

 sition, a fasciated axis grew out obliquely, about eighteen centimetres (seven- 

 tenths of an inch) in length, about one thirtieth of an inch wide at its base, 

 and twenty-two millimetres (three fifths of an inch) at its summit. Its 

 thickness varied between four and five millimetres (1-50 to 1-25 of an 

 inch), and the leaf buds were disposed around it in an irregular spirOo 

 Towards its upper portion and on one of its edges, two cylindrical branchlets 

 were developed, from forty-seven to sixty-five millimetres (one fifth to one- 

 fourth of an inch) in length. At its extremity were several flattened expansions 

 of which three short ones (ten millimetres) and one longer (thirty-six milli- 

 metres) were inserted laterally and slightly reflexed. Between the three first 

 and the last, projected an upright branch, more or less cylindrical, of which 

 I could not measure the exact length, it having been broken at the end. On 

 the terminal branchlets, the buds were for the most part atrophied. 



On examining a transverse section, I found that the cyKndrical branch 

 and the fasciated axis were two years old, and that both belonged to the same 

 generation. In the cylindrical branch, the medullary canal was already 

 strongly developed on one of the sides, and in the fasciated portion it was 

 narrow, elongated, and only covered on one of the flattened sides by a very 

 fine layer of wood. This anomaly was reproduced in the year which fol- 

 lowed the appearance of the first fasciated axis, on the summit of which 

 might be observed several productions fasciated in their turn, and which 

 presented but one single layer. 



VII. OXALIS CRENATA, JaCQ. 



(Fascia.) 



M. Samsoen has communicated to me a magnificent instance of fascia 

 No. 40, December 15. p 



