IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 
111 
AN ANOMALOUS OVARY. 
BY JAMES ELLIS GOW. 
While engaged in a study of the Araceae the writer undertook to study some 
specimens of Stenospermation popayanense, which were kindly supplied by Mr. 
Fred J. Seaver, of the New York Botanical Gardens. The genus in question is 
described by all writers on the subect as having perfect flowers. Two species, 
other than the one mentioned, are described and flgured by Schott in his Genera 
Aroidearum; but no description is there given of 8. popayanense. The two 
species described have a unicarpellate ovary, with extremely thick wall, and 
four hypogenous stamens surrounding it. In one of the species, however, the 
filaments cling to the wall of the ovary so that the anthers appear to be sessile 
and epigynous, and in both the stamen is greatly reduced. S. popayanense is 
mentioned by Ender in his Index Aroidearum, but is not described. De Can- 
dollfe mentions it as having hermaphrodite flowers. 
The entire spadix is covered with crowded, lozenge-shaped blossoms, an exami- 
nation of which reveals the fact that each is simply a short, truncate pistil, 
with a somewhat projecting, glandular stigma at the summit. The pistil is 
never surrounded by stamens, and so far as the first examination extended the 
blossom appeared to be purely pistillate and the plant dioecious. On sectioning 
the pistil longitudinally it is seen that there is a rather broad stylar canal, 
narrowed at the stigmatic end above, and again below just above the entrance 
of the carpellary cavity. The broader portion is filled with a mass of very 
regularly arranged glandular hairs, which of course serve as conducting tissue. 
There is a projection in the central portion of the carpellary cavity, and around 
this are grouped from four to eight erect, anatropous ovules. In many of the 
blossoms dissected, however, the ovules are replaced by a group of short, sessile 
stamens, although in these cases the exterior appearance of the ovary, (if the 
name may still be applied), is entirely unaltered, and the internal anatomy is 
unaltered, except for the substitution of stamens for ovules. 
Many questions have been asked the writer, by those who have seen this 
curious phenomenon, as to whether it is an abnormality peculiar to this indi- 
vidual plant, or whether it belonged generally to the species in question. To 
these queries he can as yet only reply that, as he has been able to find but one 
individual belonging to the species, and as he has seen but one crop of blossoms 
coming from that individual, he cannot say definitely what the peculiarity means. 
It has been asked also what is the fate of the stamens in question. As mature, 
and apparently perfectly normal pollen grains were found in the anthers, it is 
assumed that they are functional. Whether the filament later lengthens out, 
and the anthers protrude from the neck of the “pistil,” the writer is unable to 
say. All pistils studied were in the same stage of development, and until more 
material is obtained the later stages can only be guessed at. Perhaps the pollen 
:s shed in the interior of the carpel. A certain small percentage of carpels con- 
tain both stamens and ovules, so that the latter process might result in the 
