142 On an Abnormal Gynceceum in Stachys sylvatica. 
a plant belonging to a closely related Natural Order, viz., Anchusa 
ochroleuca belonging to Boraginaceae, “ in which the pistil consisted 
of two leaves situated antero-posteriorly on a long internode with 
a small terminal flower-bud between them.” 
The phyllody of the pistil, in which we find this part of the 
flower composed of two foliaceous carpels, furnishes additional 
evidence for what has been already ascertained by tracing the 
development, i.e., the gynoeceum in Labiatse, as well as in 
Boraginaceae, is really bi-carpeliary, although the ovary is quadri- 
locular. This affords an instance in which a teratological phenomenon 
is able to throw light on the morphological nature of a structure. 
The principal facts observed in this specimen may be summed 
up as follows :— 
1. The pistil in every flower had undergone a certain amount 
of teratological modification, one result of which was the abortion 
of all the ovules. 
2. The modification of the pistil increased in extent acropetally, 
i.e., in the same order in which the sucessive verticillasters of flowers 
were developed. 
3. The changes were observed to have taken place generally 
in the following order :— 
(a) The ovary was much enlarged, especially in length and the 
style was correspondingly'shortened and very hairy. 
( b ) The ovary was represented by two foliaceous hairy carpels 
usually united by their edges for rather more than half their length. 
( c ) The floral axis produced at its apex one or more flower- 
buds, the carpels either being of the same structure as before, or 
becoming to a greater or lesser degree aborted. At the same time 
there was a tendency for the internode between the stamens and 
pistil to become elongated. 
Botany School, 
Cambridge. 
A. W. BARTLETT. 
