Vegetable Teratology | Page 4

(C. Morren) 347, 348 181. Multiplication of catkins, Corylus
349 182. Branched inflorescence of broccoli ('Gard. Chron.') 351 183,
184. Supernumerary leaf of elm 353, 354 185. Supernumerary leaf of
hazel 355 186. Multiplication of parts of flower in a plum ('Gard.
Chron.') 366 187. Wheat-ear carnation 372 188. Multiplication of
bracts in Delphinium Consolida 373 189. Multiplication of bracts in
Pelargonium 373 190. Double white lily 376 191. Double flower of
Campanula rotundifolia 378 192. Diagram of usual arrangement of
parts in Orchis (Darwin) 381 193. Diagram of malformed flower of
Ophrys aranifera 385 194. Malformed flower of Ophrys aranifera 385

195. Diagram of malformed flower of Orchis mascula (Cramer) 386
196. Multiplication of carpels, Tulip 388 197. Section of St. Valery
apple 388 198. Regular dimerous flower of Calanthe vestita 402 199.
Regular dimerous flower of Odontoglossum Alexandræ 402 200.
Hypertrophied branch of Pelargonium 418 201. Tubers in the axils of
leaves of the potato 420 202. Hypertrophied pedicels of ash 421 203,
204. Hypertrophy and elongation of flower-stalk, &c., in pears 422,
423 205. Hypertrophied perianth, Cocos nucifera 428 206. Elongation
of flower-stalk, Ranunculus acris 436 207. Linear leaf-lobes of parsley
438 208. Passage of pinnate to palmate leaves in horse-chestnut 439
209. Elongation of thalamus, apostasis, &c., in flower of Delphinium
(Cramer) 441 210. Adventitious growths from cabbage leaf 445 211.
Crested fronds of Nephrodium molle 447 212. Supernumerary petals,
&c., Datura fastuosa 450 213. Supernumerary petaloid segments in
flower of Gloxinia 451 214. Catacorolla of Gloxinia (E. Morren) 452
215. Atrophied leaves of cabbage 460 216. Abortion of petals, pansy
461 217. Flower of Oncidium abortivum 462 218. Bladder plum 464

INTRODUCTION.
Till within a comparatively recent period but little study was given to
exceptional formations. They were considered as monsters to be
shunned, as lawless deviations from the ordinary rule, unworthy the
attention of botanists, or at best as objects of mere curiosity. By those
whose notions of structure and conformation did not extend beyond the
details necessary to distinguish one species from another, or to describe
the salient features of a plant in technical language; whose
acquaintance with botanical science might almost be said to consist in
the conventional application of a number of arbitrary terms, or in the
recollection of a number of names, teratology was regarded as a chaos
whose meaningless confusion it were vain to attempt to render
intelligible,--as a barren field not worth the labour of tillage.
The older botanists, it is true, often made them the basis of satirical
allusions to the political or religious questions of the day, especially
about the time of the Reformation, and the artists drew largely upon

their polemical sympathies in their representations of these anomalies.
Linnæus treated of them to some extent in his 'Philosophia,' but it is
mainly to Angustin Pyramus De Candolle that the credit is due of
calling attention to the importance of vegetable teratology. This great
botanist, not only indirectly, but from his personal research into the
nature of monstrosities, did more than any of his predecessors to rescue
them from the utter disregard, or at best the contemptuous indifference,
of the majority of botanists. De Candolle gave a special impetus to
morphology in general by giving in his adhesion to the morphological
hypotheses of Goethe. These were no mere figments of the poet's
imagination, as they were to a large extent based on the actual
investigation of normal and abnormal organisation by Goethe both
alone, and also in conjunction with Batsch and Jaeger.
De Candolle's example was contagious. Scarcely a botanist of any
eminence since his time but has contributed his quota to the records of
vegetable teratology, in proof of which the names of Humboldt, Robert
Brown, the De Jussieus, the Saint Hilaires, of Moquin-Tandon, of
Lindley, and many others, not to mention botanists still living, may be
cited. To students and amateurs the subject seems always to have
presented special attractions, probably from the singularity of the
appearances presented, and from the fact that in many cases the
examination of individual instances of malformation can be carried on,
to a large extent, without the lengthened or continuous investigation
and critical comparative study required by other departments of
botanical science. Be this as it may, teratology owes a very large
number of its records to this class of observers.
While the number of scattered papers on vegetable teratology in
various European languages is so great as to preclude the possibility of
collating them all, there is no general treatise on the subject in the
English language, with the exception of Hopkirk's 'Flora Anomala,' a
book now rarely met with, and withal very imperfect; and this
notwithstanding that Robert Brown early lent his sanction to the
doctrines of Goethe, and himself illustrated them by teratological
observations. In France,