1 12 Barber, — On a change of Flowers to 
this very cultivation, and the frequent importation of the 
plant to climates, such as our own, which are uncongenial to 
it, and where its perfect development is attended with diffi- 
culty, would render it peculiarly liable to deformities of the 
kind mentioned. 
Concluding Remarks. 
From the description given, it seems that the case is one of 
Chloranthy, as defined in Masters’ Teratology, p. 273. The 
author states, ‘ By Chloranthy it is understood that all, or the 
great majority, of the organs of a flower assume the form and 
appearance of foliage-leaves, the calyx not infrequently 
excepted.’ Examples are given from the Rosaceae and 
Cruciferae, in which families the phenomenon is of most 
frequent occurrence. It must be pointed out, however, that, 
in these cases, the malformation must be looked upon as a 
deformity, and the power of reproduction residing in the 
branch is entirely lost ; this is not the case with Nymphaea . 
The plant under consideration would appear, in this respect, 
rather to resemble such forms as Polygonum viviparum , 
Crassula quadrifida , Allium vine ale, and many grasses, where 
the change of floral to foliar axes is accompanied by the 
storing of nutriment. In these cases small bulbils or fleshy 
plants are formed in place of flowers on the inflorescences, and 
the species is dependent partly or entirely upon these for its 
maintenance. The change in such plants is not so much to be 
regarded as a deformity, as a diversion of power into a different, 
and perhaps more economical, direction. 
The distinction between these plants bearing bulbils instead 
of flowers and our Nymphaea exists principally in the per- 
sistence of the flower-stalk and sepals in the latter. The 
definitive change in character of the axis has set in at different 
stages of development in the two cases. Thus in Crassida 
quadrifida , which bears small fleshy plantlets upon its inflor- 
escence, no part of the flower appears on these plantlets : the 
change occurs at, so to speak, an embryonic stage. None of 
