226 



THE NATURALIST. 



in this plant, which was found in M. Van Houtte's garden. It measured forty- 

 centimetres (one and a half inches) in height, four centimetres (one-twenty- 

 fifth of an inch) at the base and fifteen centimetres (three-fifths of an inch) at 

 the summit. The blade, which was slightly distorted, bore marks corresponding 

 to a great number of leaves disposed in an irregular spire. At its summit, 

 a multitude of normal leaves were crowded together. On the sides at the base 

 and for the space of ten centimetres (two-fifths of an inch)were seven slender, 

 cylindrical, normal branches of from forty to fifty centimetres (one and three- 

 fifths to two inches) in length. 



If we comiDare a normal stem of 0. crenata, of which the central axis 

 bears at its base a number of branches rising at an acute angle, and attaining 

 almost to the thickness of the latter, with the above mentioned fasciated 

 axis, it naturally strikes the mind that in this case the greater part of the 

 branches are fused in the principal axis, and that it is a case of " defect of 

 disjunction," or in other terms a defect of hecastosia. 



YIIL Campanula rotundifolia, L. 



( Fascia, Douhling, Dismnction, Sfc.) 

 Three specimens of this plant, gathered by M. E. Beaujean, in the 

 neighbourhood of Eemagne, (Luxembourg), in July 1864, presented several 

 anomalies. 



Fii'st the principal axes were more or less fasciated (three to seven milli- 

 metres in width). As is always the case, the leaves are more numerous than 

 usual and disposed in an irregular spire. In several places, the fasciated 

 axes are disjoined, and produce (not in the axilla of the leaves) secondary flori- 

 ferous axes, more or less elongated, and either cylindrical, or more or less 

 fasciated in tm^n. On the secondary cylindrical branches, the flowers are 

 sometimes normal, sessile, and geminate on the summit of the pedicels, and 

 sometimes they present an unusual multiplication, of elements, analogous to 

 to what I am about to describe with regard to two very monstrous flowers 

 terminating two of the primary axes. In one of these flov/ers, the enlarged 

 pedicel(two millimetres) is surmounted by a broad calyx, with the limb formed 

 of more than thirty narrow teeth. The corolla, much developed, also 

 presents more than thirty lobes. The stamens in their turn are very nume- 

 rous, and the pistil, altogether misformed and atrophied, is terminated by an 

 enlarged style (four millimetres), a petalloid blade, divided at its upper edge 

 into a great number of little teeth, resembling stigmata. The terminal flower 

 of the second axis is not thus enlarged, and the different floral verticils^ 



