14
and in double cherries. Here we find in some cases two leafy carpels that, by
reason of complete union of their opposed margins, give rise to a closed cavity
no longer, however, as in the normal female flower, sessile, but very distinctly
stipitate (PLATE 4, figs. 4-16). Attached to the margin of the posterior leaf of
the pair we find an ovule remarkably like that which occurs in the flowers already
described as irritated by disease. The midrib of the leaf to which the ovule is
attached is distinctly thicker throughout than that of the opposite one (PLATE 4,
fig. 7). In other cases, still with closed cavities, we find that the ovule does not
reach the apex of the leaf to which it belongs (PLATE 4, figs. 9, 10) or is quite free
from it except for a slight union of funicle and midrib at the base (PLATE 4,
fig. 11). In still other cases we find the ovule and its funicle replaced by an
axial leafy shoot (PLATE 4, fig. 12). In these cases it was observed that the
shorter the funicle the stouter it had become, and that beyond the point of
attachment a normal midrib innerved the posterior leaf.
Among the flowers with closed carpellary cavities occur others where the
cavities remain open and the carpellary leaves, larger than in the preceding cases,
gape at the mouth and include at the base of the tube a symmetrically placed
terminal leaf-bud (PLATE 4, figs. 13-15). In yet other instances the gaping sac
is replaced by two free leaflets, supported on an extension of the axis beyond the
involving bract and perianth, which further projects between them as a leafy
branch (PLATE 4, fig. 16).
Associated with all these abnormal conditions we find considerable modifica-
tion of the perianth. This is no longer a thin, hyaline, membranous cup; it
becomes herbaceous and develops a distinct fibro-vascular system of 5 rather
stout straight nerves with, between these, 5 more slender nerves that branch anas-
tomotically. The margin of the perianth becomes hirsute and is minutely 10-
denticulate (PLATE 4, fig. 8).
The predominance of the primary branches of the main nerve of the involving bract over
its mesial continuation is more marked in these abnormal flowers than in normal ones
(PLATE 4, fig. 6). Moreover, the greater the deviation of the ovule from its normal posi-
tion the longer is the stipe on which the modified ovary is borne. It is to be remarked
further that, while the conditions shown in PLATE 4, figs. 7, 9, 10 and 11 are very common, they
are representative and not exhaustive ; all shades of intermediate states prevail. On the other
hand, the condition shown in PLATE 4, fig. 12, is very rare and has only been met with on
three or four occasions. But while in the case of carpellary leaves forming closed cavities
leafy shoots replacing modified ovules have actually been met with, the converse has not
been the case ; no ovules, but only leafy shoots, have so far been met with in cases where the
carpellary leaves formed an open sac or were free.
The interesting conditions manifested in this sport, the bearing of which on doubtful
questions will be discussed further on, do not appear to have been recorded, so far, in
European hemp plants. The sport was not at all uncommon in the Bengal hemp fields in
1893.
The vascular condition of the perianth associated with this sport does not accord with