Vegetable Teratology | Page 9

works on the 'Origin of Species,' and particularly on the
'Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication' comprise so
large a collection of facts for the use of students in most departments of
biology. It will suffice to allude, in support of these statements, to the
writings of Mr. Darwin on such subjects as rudimentary organs, the use
or disuse of certain parts according to circumstances, the frequently
observed tendency of some flowers to become structurally unisexual,
the liability of other flowers perfectly organised to become functionally
imperfect, at least so far as any reciprocal action of the organs of the
same flower is concerned, reversions, classification, general
morphology, and other subjects handled at once with such
comprehensive breadth and minute accuracy of detail by our great
physiologist.

In the following pages alterations of function, unless attended by
corresponding alterations of form, are either only incidentally alluded
to, or are wholly passed over; such, for instance, as alterations in the
period of flowering, in the duration of the several organs, and so
forth.[9] Pathological changes, lesions caused by insect puncture or
other causes, also find no place in this book, unless the changes are of
such a character as to admit of definite comparison with normal
conformation. Usually such changes are entirely heteromorphous, and,
as it were, foreign to the natural organisation.
The practical applications of teratology deserve the attention of those
cultivators who are concerned in the embellishment of our gardens and
the supply of our tables. The florist lays down a certain arbitrary
standard of perfection, and attempts to make flowers conform to that
model. Whether it be in good taste or not to value all flowers, in
proportion as they accord with an artificial and comparatively inelastic
standard of this kind, we need not stop to enquire; suffice it to say, that
taking the matter in its broadest sense, the aim of the florist is to
produce large, symmetrical flowers, brightly and purely coloured, or if
parti-coloured, the colours must be distinct, harmonious, or contrasted.
When all this is done, the flower, in most instances, becomes
'monstrous' of the eyes in the botanist, though all the more interesting
to the student of morphology on that account. In like manner the double
flowers, the "breaks," the "sports" which the florist cultivates so
anxiously, are all of them greater or less deviations from the ordinary
form, while the broccolies, the cabbages, and many other products of
our kitchen gardens and fields owe the estimation in which they are
held entirely to those peculiarities which, by an unhappy application of
words, are called monstrous by botanists. Grafting, layering, the
"striking" of cuttings, the formation of adventitious roots and buds,
processes on which the cultivator so greatly relies for the propagation
and extension of his plants, are also matters with which teratology
concerns itself. Again the difficulty experienced occasionally in getting
vines, strawberries, &c., to set properly, may sometimes be accounted
for by that inherent tendency which some plants possess of exchanging
an hermaphrodite for a unisexual condition.

For reasons then of direct practical utility, no less than on purely
scientific grounds, it is desirable to study these irregularities of growth,
their nature, limits, and inducing causes; and to this end it is hoped the
present work may, in some degree, contribute.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] An excellent summary of the history of Vegetable Teratology is
given in Kirschleger's 'Essai historique de la Tératologie Végétale,'
Strasburg, 1845.
[2] In some instances diagrams and formulæ are given in explanation of
the conformation of monstrous flowers; in general these require no
further explanation than is given in the text, unless it be to state that the
horizontal line--is intended to indicate the cohesion of the parts over
which it is placed, while the vertical line | signifies the adhesion of the
organs by whose side it is placed. The formula
S S S S S ------------------------ | P P P P P | | ST ST ST ST ST
shows that the sepals (S) are distinct, the petals (P) coherent, and the
stamens (ST) adherent to the petals.
[3] Wolff was the first to call attention to the great importance of the
study of development. He was followed by Turpin, Mirbel, Schleiden,
Payer, and others, and its value is now fully recognised by botanists.
[4] Agardh, "Theoria Syst. Plant.," p. xxiii.
[5] In the memoirs of Hopkirk, Kirschleger, Cramer, Hallier, and others,
malformations are arranged primarily according to the organs affected,
an arrangement which has only convenience to justify it. It is hoped
that the index and the headings to the paragraphs in the present volume
will suit the convenience of the reader as well as if the more artificial
plan just alluded to had been adopted.
[6] Cryptogamous plants are only incidentally alluded to in these