13
continuous with the tissue of the chalazal patch. This, coupled with the fact that the
endosperm is entirely used up in the development of the embryo, proves that all the albu-
men present in the seed must be derived from the body of the ovule and must therefore be
perisperm and perisperm only.
The manifest inequality of the two cotyledons is more visible when the embryo is
removed from its envelope of albumen (PLATE 2, fig. 21) ; the larger posterior cotyledon is
regularly plano-convex, the smaller anterior one is subtruncate at the apex and slightly
grooved vertically along its convex surface. The differences between the two cotyledons
are doubtless the result of accommodation, under pressure of growth, to the confined space
they occupy. Fibro-vascular bundles pass up the centre of the radicle and diverge fanwise
in the cotyledons ; within each, as a rule, fifteen delicate stands can be made out, three of
the fifteen being slightly stronger than the others (PLATE 2, figs. 19, 20).
SECTION III.—Abnormalities in the Flowers of Cannabis.
Pathological Abnormalities. —In Gánjá fields in Northern Bengal it is very
usual to meet with cultivated female plants attacked by an insect pest not unlike
the familiar ' Red spider.' Plants so affected become wholly or partially blighted.
The effects of this blight on the leaves do not here concern us ; the effects
produced on the flowers interest us considerably. The ovary in the affected
flowers, in place of developing a crustaceous shell, which in uncultivated plants is
shorter and in cultivated ones is not much longer than the involving bract, be-
comes converted into a thinly leathery bladder twice as long as the involving
bract (PLATE 4, fig. 1). This abnormal capsule is always finely pubescent
outside, is crowned by persistent styles, and is surrounded at the base by a con-
siderably thickened, subherbaceous, persistent perianth (PLATE 4, fig. 2).
On being laid open, one of these malformed fruits is found to contain an un-
developed ovule depending from the organic apex (PLATE 4, fig. 3).
The pubescence and the continuance of vegetative functions in the cells of the styles,
as well as the thickening of the perianth, are probably the consequence of irritative growth
induced by the stimulation caused by the pest. The main direct interest of this pathological
condition lies in the confirmation it affords of the accuracy of the statement that normally
the perianth has a horizontal or sub-horizontal margin, and the contradiction it offers to the
view that the perianth of Cannabis, like that of Humulus, is, or ought to be, split in front.
Teratological Conditions. —The chief interest of the pathological condition
described above is not, however, an intrinsic one, but lies rather in the fact that these
diseased ovaries provide a link between the normal female flower and fruit and a
teratological condition that is of frequent occurrence in quite healthy and other-
wise quite normal plants.
Non-sexual Abnormalities. —The sport in question is characterised by a pro-
lification of the carpels into organs less or more like foliage leaflets,—a phyllody
of the pistil comparable to that with which we are familiar in certain double roses