The annual
garden-forget-me-not of the Azores (_Myosotis azorica_) has a variety
with curiously enlarged flowers, often producing 20 or more
corolla-segments in one flower. But this number gradually diminishes as
the season advances. It would be quite superfluous to give further proof
of the general validity of the law of periodicity in ever-sporting
varieties.
[369]
LECTURE XIII
PISTILLODY IN POPPIES
One of the most curious anomalies that may be met with in ornamental
garden-plants is the conversion of stamens into pistils. It is neither
common nor rare, but in most cases the change is so slight comparatively
that it is ordinarily overlooked. In the opium-poppy, on the contrary,
it is very showy, and heightens the ornamental effect of the young
fruits after the fading of the flowers. Here the central capsule is
surrounded by a large crown of metamorphosed stamens.
This peculiarity has attracted the attention both of horticulturists and
of botanists. As a rule not all the stamens are changed in this way but
only those of the innermost rows. The outer stamens remain normal and
fertile, and the flowers, when pollinated with their own pollen, bear as
rich a harvest of seeds as other opium-poppies. The change affects both
the filament and the anther, the former of which is dilated into a
sheath.
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