MORPHOLOGY OF BALSAMINACEEX. 161 
five-celled ovary has its carpels alternating with the stamens во 
that the odd one is necessarily posterior instead of anterior, as in 
the normal condition. 
Here therefore we have a case of “ doubling” distinctly refer- 
able to an absolute increase in the number of whorls of organs; 
for the regular alternation of the organs of successive whorls, 
both in the normal and monstrous forms of the same flower, pre- 
cludes the idea of any development of usually suppressed organs, 
and of any dédoublement or chorisis, to which recourse is had, 
perhaps too frequently, for the explanation of double flowers. 
Such multiplication of whorls doubtless occurs to a considerable 
extent in cultivated plante, especially in genera with few stamens 
and carpels. In the double Daffodil there are found forty or fifty 
petaloid organs, while the flower naturally contains only fifteen 
organs; and each piece exhibits а more or less perfect lobe at the 
junction of the claw and limb, showing that there is no chorisis 
causing the separate development of the coronal lobes. 
In most cases of doubling we find more or less of the organs 
abnormally developed, rendering the conditions somewhat obscure ; 
but in these Balsams the circles are formed of perfectly natural 
structures; and there is a point of physiological interest in the 
throwing forward of the functions consequent upon the conversion 
of the organs. The stamens are replaced by petals, the carpels by 
stamens; and an additional whorl of carpels is produced at the 
summit of the axis. Generally speaking, the stamens are well- 
developed; but now and then one or two are found sterile, or 
surmounted by small petaloid lobes. 
These monsters are more favourable to Reeper’s than to Kunth's 
view ; for, if what we regard as the anterior petal were a “ double 
sepal," we should expect to find a petal developed within it, oppo- 
site its commissure, which was never the case in any of the very 
numerous specimens examined. 
Somewhat related to the above metamorphoses are the con- 
ditions described by Al. Braun in Delphiniwm (Pringsheim’s Jahrb. 
f. Wiss. Bot. 1857, i. 206). In that genus the stamens and carpels 
are members of a continuous spiral series, not of successive whorls. 
In D. cardiopetalum the spiral is (approximately) 3; so that the 
9th organ is opposite the Ist, &c. In cases where 16 stamens 
were found, the first carpel, being the 17th organ of the series, 
stood opposite stamens No.9 and No.1; the second carpel (18th 
organ) was opposite stamen 10, &c. (fig. 4). In another case 18 
stamens were developed before the carpels appeared, in which case 
LINN. PROC.—BOTANY. | м 
