30 
NATURE NOTES 
the known rocks of this country. It may safely be assumed that many such 
instances are due to the discharge of ballast. 
Stirling. David B. Morris. 
464. Freak of a Common Daisy {Beilis feretmis).— The plant was 
found in our garden by my sister, who sent it on to me at Windermere, with 
the query, “ What is it ?” attached. Perhaps some of our readers can answer this 
question. 
I will now give a short description which I noted down when the plant was 
alive. The plant itself, apart from the flowers, was quite normal in every 
respect. The main stem was six inches long and the flower of the usual dimen- 
sions. The bracts were large and numerous, and seemed to take the place of 
some of the ray-florets which were in their turn very few and weak. The disc- 
florets were of a dark yellow colour, and when I received the plant were not 
attached to the receptacle, but were simply held there by the adjacent ray- 
florets; on turning the flower upside down they fell out en masse. 
I'lGURF, 12. — AP.NORMAI. DaISY. 
Arising from and directly attached to the receptacle were eight small stalks — 
one was accidently broken off and lost — each one and a half inches in length and 
supporting on their head what appeared to be minute flowers. These latter were 
only one-fifth of an inch in diameter, and were composed of four or five compara- 
tively large bracts surrounding some dozens of ray-florets. 
Disc-florets I made no note of, and in the present state of the specimen it is 
impossible to say whether there were any. , 
From the fact that the disc- florets were, at any rate, attached for only a short 
time, and that the ray-florets were very scarce, it seems probable that the material 
which should have been expended in maturing these organs was spent in develop- 
ing a greater number of bracts and in producing the curious structures depicted 
here. C. C. Sii.vkri.OCK. 
[Perhaps it was a similar sport which gave rise to the well-known “ hen and 
chickens” daisy, or possibly the specimen described may have been derived from 
this cultivated form. — E d.] 
