858 PRINCIPLES OF BOTANY, ETC, 
cuous is the deformity, when a few stamens only are 
not so properly formed as they ought to be. 
§ 333. 
Monstrositas. ‘When single parts or whole plants 
have a preternatural form. In flowers or fruits the 
monstrosity 1s often such, as to annul their use en- 
tirely. 
The stem is sometimes writhed, bent, knotty, too 
much depressed, and in a lying posture. Cold 
climates in general make plants rough, small, and 
crippled. On high mountains the tallest — are 
at the summit reduced to a small size. 
Leaves not unfrequently become deformed, either 
larger or more numerous, thicker, or frizzled. 
Every person has seen trefoil with four leaves, or 
the preternaturally red coloured leaves of the beech 
tree, and others like it. 
Fruits likewise are variously deformed, they are 
either very large or very small, grown together, 
crooked, and the like. These may, however, pro- 
duce good seeds. But fruits which are doubled, 
where, when one is cut, a second one appears in its 
interior, as sometimes happens in lemons, and fruits 
which have no seeds, as for instance, the Bromelia 
Ananas ; Musa paradisiaca; Artocarpus incisa ; Ber- 
beris vulgaris, intirely fail us in performing their 
necessary offices. 
Monstrous flowers are of no value for the bo- 
tanist, as their sexual organs are wanting, and he is 
not capable without these to fix the genus. They 
may 
