Pistillody of the stamens in Nicotiana

Although in the teratological literature a good many cases have been registered of stamens either having been replaced by pistils or showing various stages of the process, it attracts attention on closer inspection, that many descriptions of the intermediate stages are not accurate enough as to admit of the forming of a clear notion of the metamorphosis. Through the kindness of Dr. Burck, who in the autumn of 1906 sent me a few monstrous flowers of Nicotiana affinis, I have been enabled to study all the degrees of pistillody of the stamens in the said plant. I will try both by description and illustration to give an impression of my observations. The structure of the normal flowers of Tobacco needs no explanation: merely for the sake of contrast with the abnormal flowers it should be mentioned that in the case under consideration their length amounted to 76 c.M., that the stigma extends just beyond the anthers and that one of the stamens is a little shorter than the four others ').