4.00 MR. W. AND MISS A. BATESON ON FLORAL VARIATIONS 
of habitat and acclimatization in promoting Variation, it should 
be mentioned that this plant is known to be an introduced 
species. Professor C. C. Babington tells us that he remembers 
that about the year 1827 a nurseryman of Bath showed him 
the plant as a new annual, and he considers it likely that it 
was originally imported for cultivation as a garden-plant. 
Soon after this time the plant had spread into a good many 
places, and Professor Babington recollects that he was accus- 
tomed to find it growing in a single field near Cambridge. In 
the ‘Supplement to English Botany’ (1853), 2769, the question 
of its origin is discussed, and it is mentioned as occurring in 
several places in England. Since that time it has spread 
everywhere, being found as far north as Aberdeen; but where- 
ever found it is essentially a weed of cultivated land. Whether 
abnormal flowers are as common in other localities or at other 
times of the year we cannot say. 
III. GrapıoLus HyBrıps. 
The next case which we propose to describe relates to changes 
of symmetry in the flowers of cultivated Gladiolus. The facts 
about to be presented are well known to all growers of Gladiolus, 
but, as they are of great importance in their bearing on several 
questions relating to variations in symmetry, it is desirable to 
describe them in detail. 
The specimens upon which the following account is based were, 
firstly, a collection of Lemoine’s purpureo-auratus hybrids in 
the gardens of Messrs. Davidson at Ammanford, S. Wales; and, 
secondly, the large stock of named varieties and seedlings of 
gandavensis in the gardens of Mr. Burrell, Cambridge. We 
desire to express our thanks to the proprietors of these gardens 
for the facilities they have thus kindly afforded us. 
The Gladioli which are now cultivated in gardens are nearly 
all of hybrid origin, being chiefly descended from the hybrid 
form known as gandavensis. As to the origin of this form there 
is some doubt, and for the present the question may be deferred, 
a further discussion being given below (see p. 407). The pur- 
pureo-auratus hybrids have been obtained recently by Lemoine, 
as a cross between purpureo-auratus and gandavensis, which 
though a hybrid seeds readily. 
On examination of a few spikes of gandavensis, it will be soon 
found that the flowers are of two different kinds. In the first 
