Vegetable Teratology: An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of PlantsMasters, Maxwell T. (Maxwell Tylden)
Science
Vegetable Teratology: An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants
Masters, Maxwell T. (Maxwell Tylden)
Plants -- Abnormalities
=Formation of adventitious buds on roots.=--One of the characteristics
by which roots are distinguished from stems in a general way consists in
the absence of buds; but, as is well known, they may be formed on the
roots under certain circumstances, and in certain plants, e.g., _Pyrus
Japonica_, _Anemone Japonica_, &c. What are termed suckers, owe their
origin to buds formed in this situation.
If roots be exposed or injured, they will frequently emit buds. The
well-known experiment of Duhamel, in which a willow was placed with the
branches in the soil and the roots in the air, and emitted new buds from
the latter and new roots from the former, depended on this production of
adventitious organs of either kind.
Gardeners often avail themselves of the power that the roots have of
producing buds to propagate plants by cuttings of the roots, but in many
of these cases the organ "parted" or cut is really an underground stem
and not a true root.
M. Claas Mulder has figured and described a case in the turnip-radish of
the unusual formation of a leafy shoot from the root, apparently after
injury.[150] From the figure it appears as if the lower portion of the
root had been split almost to the extremity, while the upper portion
seems to have a central cavity passing through it. From the angle,
formed by the split segments below, proceeds a tuft of leaves, some of
which appear to have traversed the central cavity and to have emerged
from the summit, mingling with the other leaves in that situation. The
production of a flower-bud has even been noticed on the root of a
species of _Impatiens_.
=Formation of shoots beneath the cotyledons.=--The tigellar or axial
portion of the embryo plant, as contrasted with the radicle proper, is
very variously developed in different cases; sometimes it is a mere
"collar" bearing the cotyledons, while at other times it is of
considerable size. Generally it does not give origin to shoots or leaves
other than the seed-leaves, but occasionally shoots may be seen
projecting from it below the level of the cotyledons. This happens
frequently in seedling plants of _Anagallis arvensis_, _Euphorbia_
_peplus_, and other species, _Linaria vulgaris_, some _Umbelliferae_,
&c.[151]
=Adventitious formation of leaves.=--The term phyllomania has been
vaguely applied both to the production of an unwonted number of leaves
and to their development in unusual situations. Under the present
heading the latter class of cases are alone included. The extraordinary
tendency in some Begonias to develop leaves or leafy excrescences from
their surfaces is elsewhere alluded to, and is, in reality, a species of
hypertrophy or over-luxuriant growth.
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