406 MR. W. AND MISS A. BATESON ON FLORAL VARIATIONS 
This is generally but not literally true, but a few cases were 
seen in which the reverse was found, the partially marked petal 
being nearer to the middle line than the fully marked one. It 
was also seen that the extent to which the reduced and marked 
segment was displaced from the middle line was, generally 
speaking, inversely proportional to the degree to which the 
adjacent segment partook of the characters of the posterior 
segment ; in fact the more nearly the two anterior petals were 
alike, the more did the flower take the position of the first type; 
but the greater the difference between them, the more was the 
position that of the second type. The position of the stamens in 
these intermediate flowers was somewhat various, but as a rule 
the anthers were turned much as in flowers of the second type- 
So closely does the position of the flower depend upon the degree 
of modification in the segments, that for a moment it seemed 
that perhaps the flower might be rotated into position in corre- 
spondence with some physical stimulus conveyed by the petals 
and varying with their size or intensity of marking. To test the 
existence of such a control, various portions of unopened buds 
were removed, but the positions assumed by the flowers on ex- 
pansion differed in no perceptible way from that which they 
would have assumed if uninjured. Of course it must be remem- 
bered that there is no evidence as to a relation of cause and 
effect between the form of the flower and its position, and though 
for convenience we may say that flowers in which the petal 2, for 
example, is reduced and marked, stand so that this petal is in the 
median vertical plane, it might equally be stated in the converse 
form, that flowers placed so that the petal 2 is in the median 
vertical plane have this petal marked and reduced: for all that 
can be seen is that the phenomena of position and marking &c. 
are correlated. 
The above description, as has been stated, applies to the 
ordinary garden varieties of Gladiolus, which are collectively 
known as gandavensis. As these are all of hybrid origin, the 
question naturally arises whether the two types of flower are both 
found in any wild species, and especially whether they occur 1 
the parents of gandavensis. As to the first question, it may be 
replied at once that the type of flower here spoken of as the 
Jirst type is the normal form of the flower in wild species. We 
