I call it undesirable with respect to
experiments on the variability of the character. For it may easily be
seen that while it is feasible to count the stamens even when converted
into pistils, it is not possible when groups of them are more or less
intimately united into single bodies. This combination makes all
enumeration difficult and inaccurate and often wholly unreliable. In
such cases the observation is limited to a computation of the degree of
the change, rather than to a strict numerical inquiry. Happily the
responses to the experimental influences are so marked and distinct that
even this method of describing them has proved to be wholly sufficient.
In extreme instances I have seen all the changed stamens of a flower of
the opium-poppy united into a single body, so as to form a close sheath
all around the central ovary. Lesser sheaths, surrounding one-half or
one-third of the capsule are of course less rarely met with. Leaving
this description of the outer appearance [374] of our anomaly, we may
now consider it from the double point of view of inheritance and
variability.
The fact of inheritance is shown by the experience of many authors, and
by the circumstance already quoted, that the variety has been propagated
from seed for more than half a century, and may be obtained from various
seed merchants.
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