156 
POPTJLAK SCIENCE KEVIEW. 
of pollen adhering to what looks like a slender leaf, and might 
detect no symptoms of a stigma. He would see an anther-like 
body attached to the margin of another leaf, hut most likely 
without a trace of pollen upon it. These appearances would 
be puzzling, but easily explained by unrolling a few buds, just 
before their natural time of opening. It would then be seen 
that the stigma was a whitish body at the apex of the leaf (or 
petaloid expansion), and that it was soft and full of fluid. 
Thinly slicing it, and placing it under a -^-inch power, would 
show the structure exhibited in fig. 10 — a multitude of fine 
tubes. The anther grows so as to touch the stigma-leaf ; and 
frequently, if not always, transfers the whole of its pollen to 
that body before the bud opens. This had happened in every 
case I have examined. Soon after the opening of the flower 
the stigma shrivels, and often leaves scarcely a trace to be seen. 
The impregnation thus appears to occur in the bud, and unless 
insects have any action in carrying pollen from one plant to ' 
another, the greater part of the pollen-globules of any plant 
have no chance of performing their function, as they are de- 
posited below the stigma, and cannot get at it by any move- 
ment of their own. The soft tubular filaments catch and en- 
tangle the pollen that is used. ' 
The petaloid condition of styles and of stamens, which is 
normal in some plants, occurs in others as a monstrosity. For 
example, I noticed, in February, a Fuchsia (in a greenhouse) ' 
with a very strange-looking flower. Two of the sepals, instead 
of taking their usual appearance, resembling white petals, had ' 
grown into green leaves, and another had formed itself into a 
hollow slipper-like object, while some of the stamens had ' 
developed petaloid outgrowths, as shown in fig. 11, with rich : 
red colours. ' 
Facts of this kind are very instructive, because they indi- | 
cate modes of transition by which one group of plants might | 
give rise to varieties that would be classed in other genera, i 
families, or orders. There is an obvious difference between I 
variations from the parent type that are properly called I 
deformities, and which involve some injury or infirmity, and , 
those that are consistent with vigorous growth and reproduc- | 
tion under certain conditions. If means could be found of j 
perpetuating such an abnormal Fuchsia as I have described, we ! 
should have a new garden flower. In this Fuchsia, the out- 
growth was from the anther itself, not from the filament. 
In Dr. Maxwell Masters’ “Vegetable Teratology,”* a long 
list is given of plants subject to “petalody of the stamens 
Eay Soc. publication. 
