354 
Notes . 
varying in length from 3J to 6 inches. There were also borne two small secondary 
flower scapes with good spikes which are also shown. The details of the apical 
growth were not followed, but the white hairs which clothe the leaf bases of the 
typical plant were well developed here. One point was clear, however, and is shown 
in Fig. 1, b. It represents the flower scape with the vegetative portion removed, and 
shows that its point of attachment (b) was lateral. The part (a) above this was 
withered and dry, as if some part previously growing above it had died. 
The second specimen showed more. It was obviously younger — only five 
leaves being developed, and these being small. The rosette was somewhat asym- 
metrical. Fig. 2 shows this, and further that it was asymmetrical because it was 
carried as a lateral outgrowth from the lower end of a normal spike of which 
the withering head is still seen projecting on the left, being pushed aside by the 
developing rosette. The lower part of the spike — hidden in the figure — was still 
visible. Fig. 1 is but an older stage of this, in which the spike has withered and 
the vegetative growth has become prac- 
tically symmetrical — its lateral origin being 
still indicated, as in Fig. 1, b. 
The abnormality is apparently to be 
interpreted as the adventitious develop- 
ment of a vegetative bud in place of a 
flower-bud in the spike, comparable with 
similar developments in the flower heads 
of other plants, such as in the case of 
the Pelargonium zonale mentioned by 
H. de Vries (Jahrb. f. wiss. Bot., Bd. xxii). 
The remarks it is wished to make 
are these. In the first place it is quite 
a different phenomenon from the develop- 
ment seen in P l an tag 0 media var. brac- 
teata . This is a well-known constant 
garden variety of which there is a very 
good example in the Botanical Gardens 
here. In this form the bracts subtending 
the flowers of the spike grow vegetatively. 
They may only undergo this development 
along part of the spike or throughout its whole length. 
Passing on now to the second point, which relates to the anatomical con- 
struction of normal and abnormal scapes derived from specimen a. A transverse 
section of the normal scape shows a ribbed structure with development of scleren- 
chyma towards the periphery, and especially at the ribs. Within the sclerotic zone 
are complete vascular bundles of moderate dimensions, and in addition isolated 
strands of phloem are present. 
The abnormal scape had a larger section, due at any rate in part to the in- 
creased dimensions of the cortical parenchyma. In addition to this, however, the 
Fig. 2. Second specimen of abnormality on 
Plantago lanceolata (also diagrammatic). 
