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
Generally speaking, the disunion is complicated with frondescence--but
not always so. I have, in my herbarium, specimens of _Convallaria
majalis_, _Commelyna sp._, and of _Lilium auratum_, in all of which the
three carpels are completely disjoined, and present three styles, three
stigmas, &c., without any other change. Engelmann[79] speaks of three
classes of this malformation. 1st, that in which the carpels separate
one from the other without opening, as in the lily just alluded to; 2nd,
that in which the ovary remains closed, but loses its internal
partitions, as in a case mentioned by Moquin in _Stachys sylvatica_, in
which, owing to imperfect disjunction, the two bi-lobed carpels were
changed into a nearly one-celled capsule;[80] and 3rd, those cases in
which the carpels are open and foliaceous.
[Illustration: FIG. 32.--Anomalous form of orange.]
Disjunction is more frequent in dry fruits than in fleshy ones. In the
latter instance it happens at an early stage of existence, and the
pericarp becomes more or less leafy, losing its faculty of becoming
fleshy, as in _Prunus Cerasus_ and _Amygdalus persica_; nevertheless,
fleshy fruits sometimes become disunited. I have seen a case similar to
that mentioned by M. Alphonse de Candolle in _Solanum esculentum_, in
which the pericarp became ruptured, and the placentas protruded. A like
occurrence has also been observed in a species of _Melastoma_.[81] This
is analogous to what happens in _Caulophyllum_ and _Slateria_.
Disjunction of the carpels is not rare in oranges. Sometimes this takes
place regularly, at other times irregularly; occasionally in such a
manner as to give the appearance of a hand and fingers to the fruit. Of
one of these, Ferrari,[82] in the curious volume below cited, speaks
thus: "Arbor profusissima, quia dat utraque manu; imo quia vere manus
dat in poma conversis; utque magis munifica sit poma ipsa convertit in
manus."
M. Duchartre[83] mentions a semi-double flower of orange with eight to
ten distinct carpels in a whorl, and occasionally several whorls one
above another. De Candolle[84] considers the rind of the orange as a
production from the receptacle, and this view is confirmed by the
specimens of Duchartre, in which the carpels were quite naked or had a
common envelope truncated, and open above to allow of the passage of the
styles and stigmas.
[Illustration: FIG. 33.--Orange. Showing disjunction of carpels, after
Maout.]
[Illustration: FIG. 34.--Section of orange shown in fig. 33 after
Maout.]
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