NOTE, 
ABNORMAL FLOWERS IN ERANTHIS.— The genus ' Eranthis consists of 
about ten described species inhabiting the Mediterranean Region and Central and 
Eastern Asia. Morphologically it is very closely related to the genus Helleborus , and, 
as Dr. A. H. Church has pointed out ('Floral Mechanism,’ i, p. 14, note 2), the gener- 
ally adopted taxonomic division between the two genera is perhaps not the most 
natural one which could be adopted. The characters usually relied upon for separat- 
ing them are: 1, the membranous deciduous sepals of Eranthis contrasting^with the 
herbaceous persistent ones of Helleborus ; 2, leaves palmate in Eranthis and generally 
pedate in Helleborus ; 3, ovules with two integuments in Eranthis and with one in 
Helleborus . 
E. cilicica , Schott et Kotschy, is a species which is geographically limited to 
Asia Minor, Syria, and Armenia. It is very closely allied to E. hiemalis , Salisb., but 
differs in having the involucral segments divided into more numerous and narrower 
lobes, ovate not oblong anthers, and erect not falcate carpels. Huth ('Engl. Jahrb.,’ 
xvi, p. 297, 1892-3) reduces the species to a variety of E. hiemalis , Salisb., and this 
is probably the more reasonable view. Huth records the plant also from Mt. Delphi 
(Dirphys), Euboea, but no confirmation has been found of this record, and the genus 
is not referred to in Halacsy, ‘ Conspectus Florae Graecae ’. 
E. cilicica is regularly grown in the Alpine House at Kew, and in February 
of this year three pots were in full bloom. While examining the individual flowers 
with a pocket-lens the writer observed that all those of one plant showed some 
anomalies which are the subject of the present note. The flowers of all the other 
plants appeared perfectly normal in all respects. 
The normal flower (Fig. 1) consists of six bright yellow sepals, about six, deep 
orange, tubular honey-glands 01 petals (Fig. 2), numerous stamens, and numerous 
multiovulate carpels. Immediately below the flower occurs a whorl of three green bracts 
which are divided more or less deeply into narrow segments. Each stamen (Fig. 3) 
has a slender filament averaging 6 mm. in length and an anther 2 mm. in length with 
two well-formed lobes, each of which is rounded above and below. Occasionally an 
outer stamen shows a smaller anther with the lobes narrower. A normal carpel 
(Fig. 4) is 8 mm. in length, and on the adaxial side it passes straight down into a short 
stalk, but on the abaxial side it bulges considerably and is then constricted suddenly 
before passing into the stalk. A gradually tapering style, a little shorter than the 
body of the carpel, surmounts the whole. 
In an abnormal flower (Fig. 5) the yellow sepals were somewhat narrower than 
normally. The honey-glands were present to the number of five or six, and, while 
some were of the typical shape, most had a better developed slender stalk and showed 
an expanded blade, with a corresponding reduction in the tubular portion (Fig. 6). 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. XXXVI. No. CXLI. January, 1922.] 
