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
Gubler[200] alludes to a similar occurrence in _Pistacia Lentiscus_,
wherein, however, he adds that there was a deficiency of pollen in the
flowers.
Schnizlein[201] observed hermaphrodite flowers in the beech, _Fagus
sylvatica_, the ovaries being smaller than usual, and the stamens
epigynous.
Baillon[202] enumerates the following _Euphorbiaceae_ as having
exceptionally produced hermaphrodite flowers, _Crozophora tinctoria_,
_Suregada_ sp., _Phyllanthus longifolius_, _Breynia_ sp., _Philyra
brasiliensis_, _Ricinus communis_, _Conceveiba macrophylla_, _Cluytia
semperflorens_, _Wall_, non _Roxb_. _Mercurialis annua_ and
_Cleistanthus polystachyus_.
In some of these cases the hermaphroditism is due to the development of
anthers on the usually barren staminodes, though, in other cases, the
stamens would seem to be separate, independent formations, as they do
not occupy the same relative position that the ordinary stamens would do
if developed.[203]
[Illustration: FIG. 102.--Flower of _Fuchsia_ in which the calyx was
leafy, the petals normal (reflexed in the figure), the stamens partially
converted into ovaries, the ordinary inferior ovary being absent. See
Substitution.]
Robert Brown[204] observed stamens within the utricle of _Carex acuta_,
and Gay is stated by Moquin ('El. Ter. Veg.,' p. 343) to have observed
a similar occurrence in _Carex glauca_.
Paasch[205] observed a similar occurrence in _C. caespitosa_, and
Schauer, in _C. paludosa_,[206] though in the latter instance the case
seems to have been one of transformation or substitution rather than one
of hermaphroditism.
The second cause of this pseudo-hermaphroditism is due either to the
more or less perfect mutation of male and female organs, or it may be to
the complete absence of one and its replacement by another, as when out
of many stamens, one or more are deficient, and their places occupied by
carpels. This happens very frequently in willows and poplars, and has
been seen in the beech.[207]
[Illustration: FIG. 103.--Hermaphrodite flower of _Carica Papaya_.]
In _Begonia frigida_[208] the anomaly is increased by the position of
the ovaries above, the perianth, a position due, not to any solution or
detachment of the latter from the former, but simply to the presence of
ovaries where, under ordinary circumstances, stamens only are formed,
as happened also in a garden variety of a _Fuchsia_, wherein, however,
the change was less perfect than in the _Begonia_, and in which, as the
flower is naturally hermaphrodite, the alteration is of the less
importance.
[Illustration FIG. 104.--Ovuliferous anthers--_Cucurbita_.]
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