Page:Journal of botany, British and foreign, Volume 34 (1896).djvu/29

 TERATOLOGIOAL OBSERVATIONS ON PARNASSIA PALUSTRIS L. 13 No. OF Carpels. 8 4 5 6 Percentage of 4-merous flowers with ,, 5-merous ,, ,, 6-merous „ 66-6 8-9 6-2 88-8 91'S 15-8 4-8 78-7 0-5 5-2 Then QQ-Q % of the 4-merous flowers had three carpels ; ap- proximately 91*3 % of the 5-merous flowers had four carpels, i. «., were normal ; and 73-7 % of the 6-merous flowers had five carpels. Too much stress, however, must not be laid upon such too-slender figures. Abnormal flowers of P. palustris were noticed on the Continent more than half a century ago. Flowers with five carpels were first recorded by A. and L. Bravais,* and are again mentioned by Louis Bravaist as occurring rarely; while Wydler, in his first paper| on the subject, records finding a flower with three carpels. So here are both the commonest abnormalities known before the year 1850. Roeper, in a paper entitled * Abnorme Normalgestaltungen,' § says that, in searching over more than a thousand flowers, he found two specimens with five carpels. Seemann, dealing with the botany of Alaska, II states that, "nearly one-half of the specimens collected in Western Eskimaux-land had five stigmas, and a capsule of five valves." It will be noticed at once that, as far as Seemann's and Eoeper's statements extend, there seems to be a great difl'erence in the amount of variation found in these two regions — Central Europe and Alaska; in the former, two abnormal flowers in over a thousand; in the latter, *' nearly one-half of the flowers." Keeper's experiences are by no means unsupported. Wydler has published two other papers,1I in which he describes abnormal forms of P. palnstHs. These abnormalities number, adding those of both papers together, fifteen flowers with three carpels, one being 4-merous, six flowers with five carpels, and one flower with six carpels ; and though he gives no clue to the percentage of varying flowers, his words seem to indicate that it was but small. Buchenau** records flowers (one of each) with the following formulae: — K^C^A^ + ^GgjEgCgAg + gGg, and G 4, and G 5, and also two flowers K5C5A54-5G5. Kirschlegertf says, *'0n rencontre, mais rarement, des ovaires a 8 ou 5 placentaires et stigmates;" and WettsteinJI speaks of Nat. 2nd ser. xii. p. 39, 1839. t ' Examen organographique des Nectaires,' Id. xviii. p. 164, 1842. I ' Morphologische Beitrage,' Flora, 1844, p. 751. § Bot. Zeiiung, 1852, x. p. 187. II Botany of the Voyage of H.M.S. 'Herald.' London, 1852-1857, p. 25. ^ •Morphologische Mittheilungen,' Flora, 1857, p. 18; and 'Kleinere Beitrage zur Kenntniss einheimische Gewachse,' Flora, 1860, p. 395. tt Flore d' Alsace, Strasbourg, 1857, ii. p. 425. •Zur Morphologie d Staminodien v. Parnassia palustris,' Berichte 4. l>eutsch. Bot. Gesellschaft, viii. p. 304, 1890.
 * • Essai sur la disposition g6ii6rale des feuilles rectis^ri^es,' Ann, des Sc.
 * *Einige Bluthenabnormitaten,' Flora, 1857, p. 291.