Abstract
IN the volume before us we have the most complete account that has yet been given to the public of the various aberrant forms which are from time to time presented by the different organs of which plants are composed. Such investigations are no mere idle amusement for the leisure hours of naturalists, but have an important scientific bearing. Since botanists have attempted to arrange the vegetable kingdom in a classification possessing a higher claim to the title of “natural” than that proposed by Lin-nseus, it has been acknowledged that the true, though hidden, relationships of a genus may often be indicated by an abnormal or monstrous variety. A new interest has been given to these inquiries by the theory, now so generally adopted by naturalists, that affinity in structure is but an indication of consanguinity in descent; these exceptional forms or “sports” being regarded as frequently reversions to an ancestral type of structure. Apart, however, from such modifications as are of importance in systematic botany, there are others which are noteworthy as throwing light on controverted points in morphology, and on the relation to one another of the different organs. Among these are the exact morphological character of the carpel, viewed in the light of a metamorphosed leaf; and of the so-called “inferior” ovary, whether its covering is to be considered as a united calyx-tube, or as a modified continuation of the axis. The occasional substitution of one organ for another is carried to a far greater extent in the vegetable than ever appears, even occasionally, in the animal kingdom. As Dr. Masters remarks, the animal physiologist would regard as an incredible monstrosity the replacement of sperm-cells by germ-cells, or the converse; although these are comparable to abnormal growths, of which several are recorded, where ovules are borne by stamens, or pollen is produced inside ovules. The two wood-cuts which we give illustrate these remarkable transformations.
Vegetable Teratology: An Account of the Principal Deviations from the usual Construction of Plants.
By Maxwell T. Masters. With numerous illustrations by E. M. Williams. (Published for the Ray Society. 1869.)
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BENNETT, A. Vegetable Teratology: An Account of the Principal Deviations from the usual Construction of Plants . Nature 1, 328 (1870). https://doi.org/10.1038/001328a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/001328a0