MASTERS' BOOK OX VEGETABLE TERATOLOGY. 



157 



in these malformations. Sometimes one or two stamens are slightly 

 affected, or the flower becomes semi-double or fully double. All the 

 numerous intermediate forms between true petals and perfect stamens 

 may be seen on the same plant, and not rarely a series of transitions of 

 forms is observed in a single flower. 



From a careful study of numerous cases of petalody, Masters derives 

 the conclusion that the homology of the floral organs is usually not so 

 much with the entire leaf of a plant as with its sheath. In the case 

 before us, we may observe how the stamens, in dilating and assuming 

 petaloid structure, at first produce those little appendices along their sides 

 which evidently correspond to the stipules of green leaves. 



Masters then recalls the views of Goethe concerning the essential 

 morphological identity of the various whorls of the flower and its 

 corroboration in the frequent appearance of one organ in the guise of 

 another. It would take us too long to follow him into all his arguments ; 

 it is quite sufficient to state the fact, in order to indicate how the philo- 

 sophical aspect of the phenomena observed was always uppermost in his 

 mind. 



Double flowers, sometimes, have all their organs changed into petals, 

 or rather refrain from producing anything save petals. In analysing 

 the very heart of the flower, we find the same scheme repeated almost 

 without limitation, more young petals being produced for development 

 than the flower is able to display. Sometimes the axis of the flower is 

 abnormally lengthened, as in "some instances of the double crowfoot 

 (fig. 37) of our gardens, separating dense groups of petals and producing 

 the appearance of a series of superimposed flowers. At other times, the 

 petals are equally distributed along a lengthened axis, as in the white 

 lily. 



Petalody of the connective is seen in some forms of the double 

 columbine (fig. 38), in which this part of the stamen forms a tubular 

 petal or nectary. These nectaries are not rarely repeated, a siDgle stamen 

 producing a series of them, which seem to slide into one another. 



From petalody there is only one step to phyllody, or the change of 

 floral organs into green bracts and leaves. It is an anomaly of very 

 frequent occurrence. In the green rose all the parts of the flower have 

 become small green leaves (fig. 39). The stamens show the same mal- 

 formations as in ordinary double flowers, but the dilated parts are greAi, 

 instead of having the colours of normal petals. 



The reduction of the flowers to sterile corollas, and even to simple 

 coloured stalks, is seen in a very beautiful example, the feather hyacinth 

 (fig. 40 ). In this case it is combined with an increased number and with 

 their branching. The supernumerary pedicels are brightly coloured and 

 attract insects, which, however, can find neither pollen nor honey in 

 them. From the morphological point of view we may consider the 

 absence of flowers as compensated for by the formation of brightly 

 coloured modified pedicels. For the evolutionist they constitute an 

 increase of the change which the species itself shows in comparison with 

 its allies. Its special character is the little tuft of coloured, but sterile 

 flowers on the summit of the spike ; these organs are more or less reduced 

 in size and organization, the more so the higher they are placed on the 



