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
=Pistillody of the perianth.=--The passage of the segments of the
perianth into carpels has been observed frequently in _Tulipa
Gesneriana_, the change in question being generally attended by a
partial virescence. M. Gay is said by Moquin to have observed a flower
of _Crocus nudiflorus_ in which the segments of the perianth were cleft
and fringed at the same time, so that they presented the appearance of
the stigmas.
[Illustration: FIG. 160.--Flower of tulip, allowing vertical attachment
of a leaf, and also the existence of ovules on the margins of the
segments of the perianth. Some of the parts are removed.]
=Pistillody of the sepals.=--In some double flowers of the garden pea
communicated by Mr. Laxton, among other peculiarities was a
supernumerary 5-6-leaved calyx, some of the segments of which were of a
carpellary nature, and bore imperfect ovules on their margins, while at
their extremities they were drawn out into styles.[335]
=Pistillody of the stamens.=--This change whereby the stamens assume more
or less the appearance of pistils is more commonly met with than is the
metamorphosis of the envelopes of the flower into carpels. In some cases
the whole of the stamen appears to be changed, while in others it is the
filament alone that is altered, the anther being deficient, or
rudimentary; while, in a third class of cases, the filament is
unaffected, and the anther undergoes the change in question. In those
instances in which the filament appears to be the portion most
implicated, it becomes dilated so as to resemble a leaf-sheath rather
than a leaf-stalk, as it does usually.
One of the most curious cases of this kind is that recorded in the
'Botanical Magazine,' (tab. 5160, f. 4) as having occurred in _Begonia
frigida_ already alluded to, and in which, in the centre of a male
flower, were four free ovoid ovaries alternating with as many stamens.
In the normal flowers of this plant, as is well known, the male flowers
have several stamens, while in the female flowers the ovary is strictly
inferior, so that, in the singular flower just described, the perianth
was inferior instead of being superior, as it is usually. It should be
added also that the perianth in these malformed flowers was precisely
like that which occurs ordinarily in the male flowers.
[Illustration: FIG. 161.--Supernumerary carpels in the orange, arising
from substitution of pistils for stamens.]
In some varieties of the orange, called by the French "bigarades
cornues," the thalamus of the flower, which is usually short, and
terminated by a glandular ring-like disc, is prolonged into a little
stalk or gynophore, bearing a ring of supernumerary carpels. These
carpels are isolated one from another, and are formed by the
transformation of the filaments of the stamens.[336]
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