[Sometimes the diversity in form is due to an unravelling or disentanglement of mixed characteristics; thus, many hybrid or crossbred plants will run back to one or other of their parental forms. It would seem, therefore, that these variations are referable to stage of growth and relative degree of vigour, to physiological purpose, to reversion to remote ancestral forms, or to nearer parental characteristics. We give illustrations of two such cases, both furnished us by the kindness of Baron von Mueller. In the one, Leptospermum laevigatum,1 a small tuft of branches and shoots with relatively very small leaves emerges from a branch of the ordinary character. In the other, Acacia elongata,2 from amid a dense mass of small phyllodes or dilated leafstalks, bearing at their summits small pinnate leaves, spring long linear phyllodes destitute of true leaves.]
Acacia elongata
Leptospermum laevigatum
A reference to the illustration is inserted here: (fig. 180, p. 816).
A reference to the illustration is inserted here: (fig. 182, p. 820).
Letter not found. The text given here is from 'Dimorphism in plants', Gardeners' chronicle, 26 June 1886, p. 815. It is dated to May as the latest date that it could have been sent to have been discussed in this issue, but it may have been sent substantially earlier as other cases from other correspondents are discussed in the unsigned article, almost certainly by Maxwell Masters who had a special interest in such plant abnormalities. Given Masters's interest in such abnormalities, it is possible that the letter was addressed to him personally.
Please cite as “FVM-86-05-00d,” in Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, edited by R.W. Home, Thomas A. Darragh, A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora†, J.H. Voigt† and Monika Wells accessed on