Page:Journal of botany, British and foreign, Volume 34 (1896).djvu/30

 14 TERATOLOGIOAL OBSERVATIONS ON PARNASSIA PALUSTRIS L. abnormal "among many normal" blossoms. These last investi- gations were made in the Tyrol.* Then consider the statements of these authors in connection with the table of abnormalities given above for Scarborough and the Grampians. There are two points to which I wish to call attention : (1) that the variation in these different places — Alaska, Britain, and Continental Europe — runs on the same lines, every- where the ovary being the most variable organ ; and (2) that, in want of fuller statistics, it appears as if P. palustris is very variable in Alaska (nearly 50 %), much less so in Britain (9 %), and still less variable on the Continent. Let us turn to the other abnormalities. Firstly, there were six flowers given at the base of the first table, which need fuller explanations. Of these, three (marked with an asterisk, and not included in the second table) are intermediate in symmetry between two types, having more members in the calyx than in some of the other whorls between it and the ovary. Three of the six flowers (c) exhibited a chorisis of one stamen ; and one had two petals, two stamens, and two staminodes aborted on the late-developing side of the flower. Other abnormalities were observed as follows : — 1 flower. — Phyllody of the first sepal. 1 flower. — Sepalody of a petal, the staminode above it being aborted. 1 flower. — Petalody of a sepal and two stamens. 3 flowers. — The ovary, incompletely closed, bearing on one side an extra anther, or in one case two anthers. 1 flower. — Adhesion of a sepal and petal. 1 flower. — Adhesion of a petal and stamen. 2 flowers. — Adhesion of a stamen to outside of ovary. 1 flower. — Cohesion of three stamens, accompanied by complete disappearance of three staminodes, two being those alternating with the fused stamens, the other having disappeared from the opposite side of the flower ; the two remaining staminodes, those before first and fifth petals, were much reduced. 1 flower. — One sepal, two petals, one stamen being represented by a lump attached to outside of ovary. 1 flower. — Five carpels present, of which three were fused together into a perfect but flattened ovary, while the other two were lying free against the most flattened side of it.t 1 flower. — Complete abortion of ovary. Many flowers were found in which the carpels were incompletely fused together, and others in which the stigmas left a small opening carpels is noted ; among the authors of these may be mentioned Wimmer, Godet, Grenier, and J. A. Schmidt. t Buchenau describes and figures an almost identical case ; in his flower, however, there were two complete ovaries — one with three and the other with two placentae. 'Einige Beobachtungea aus d. Gebiete d. Pflanzen-Teratologie,' Bot. Zeitung, 1862, xx. p. 307.
 * investigating numberless Pan?assm-flowers," and finding ten
 * In various floras the possibility of flowers occurring with three or five