392 MR. W. AND MISS A. BATESON ON FLORAL VARIATIONS 
owing to the doubtful character of the evidence*. The corollas 
fall off as the seed-vessel enlarges, and it is then not possible to 
determine upon what type the flower was formed, while, on the 
other hand, persistence of the corolla is generally associated 
with atrophy of the seed-vessel. An examination of flowers 
which still bore the withered corolla showed that a large propor- 
tion even of normal flowers set no seed; but in several instances 
the seed-vessel had enlarged, and there was every appearance 
that the seed was sound. Out of a large number of withered 
pelorie flowers examined, an enlarging seed-vessel containing 
healthy-looking seed was only found in one case; but from the 
ambiguity of the evidence it cannot safely be inferred that very 
few peloric flowers set their seed, for some of those seed-vessels 
which have enlarged and lost their corollas may have borne 
peloric flowers. On the whole the impression was produced 
that comparatively few peloric flowers set seed. The peloric 
form is well known in Linaria vulgaris, &c. 
We shall now describe other abnormal forms in which the 
corolla is still irregular, though its symmetry differs from that of 
the normal flower. Of such abnormal flowers five forms were 
seen which were symmetrical, and in addition to these some of 
more or less asymmetrical shapes were found. 
No. 1. Flower having the corolla shaped as in the normal form, 
but possessing two spurs instead of one (Plate L. fig. 3).—Such 
flowers are not very common, but can generally be obtained 
by searching. In all those examined, the centrai posterior 
stamen (which is aborted in normal flowers) was fully deve- 
loped. 
Before comparing the spurs of this abnormal form with that 
ef the normal flower, it may be remarked that the spur is of 
course developed from the base of a petal and not from the 
tissue lying between two petals. Since, then, in the normal 
flower the spur is an outgrowth from the base of the middle 
anterior petal, it is clear that if two spurs are developed and one 
of them is that of the median petal, the other must be formed 
from a lateral petal, and therefore be in origin asymmetrical. 
* There is of course no question that such peloric forms set seed sometimes, 
but we wished to know whether they did so as often as normal flowers. 
Darwin, for example, raised seedlings of peloric Antitrhinum (* Animals and 
Plants,’ 1885, ii. p. 71); and Willdenow (Species Plant. iii. 254) gives evidence 
showing that the same is almost certainly true for Zinaria vulgaris. 
