Some Points in the Morphology and Physiology of 
Fasciated Seedlings. 
BY 
T. REED, A.R.C.Sc. 
Senior De?nonstrator of Biology , Guy's Hospital Medical School ( University of London). 
With nine Figures in the Text. 
A FASCIATION is a form of abnormality in which the organ con- 
cerned becomes flattened or banded. This may be brought about 
in two ways, (i) by the fusion of organs which are ordinarily distinct, 
or (2) by the lateral expansion of an organ at its growing point. 
The study of abnormalities in general has always occupied a more 
or less prominent place in botanical science, but the point of view from 
which they have been regarded has largely been that of the £ curious \ 
The two following quotations show in a striking manner the attitude of 
the botanists in the middle of the nineteenth century and the beginning 
of the twentieth. M. T. Masters (13), in his ‘Vegetable Teratology*, is 
describing the attitude of the botanists of the day, and says of malforma- 
tions, ‘ They have been too long looked upon as monsters to be shunned, 
lawless deviations from the ordinary rule and unworthy of the attention of 
botanists.’ Hugo de Vries (21) in 1905 says, ‘ Monstrosities are often 
considered as accidents, and rightly so from the morphological point of 
view, but physiology excludes all accidentally . Some internal hereditary 
quality is present though often latent, and the observed abnormalities 
are to be regarded as responses of this innate tendency to external con- 
ditions. Monstrosities should always be studied by physiologists from 
this point of view.’ 
Looked at from this point of view abnormalities become invested 
with a much greater importance. 
The normal development of an individual is the result of two factors, 
the inherent tendencies of the organism and the external influences to 
which it is subjected. An abnormal form is one which deviates to any 
considerable extent from the normal or ‘ usual ’ form, as a result of the 
disturbance of one or other of these factors. If, however, the organism 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. XXVI, No. CII. April, 1912.] 
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