418 MR. W. AND MISS A. BATESON ON FLORAL VARIATIONS 
posterior median sepal, by abortion of stamens, and the like. The 
study of Variation shows how vain and inadequate this treatment 
is. In the Veronica with three petals is it supposed that there 
has been, firstly, division of the anterior petal into two parts, 
each of which has united with the lateral petals ? What is the 
evidence of this? Let it be remembered that in suggesting that 
the posterior petal of Veronica has been formed by union of the 
two posterior petals of its Serophulariaceous ancestor, it is cer- 
tainly suggested that there has been a series of actual forms in 
which this union was, step by step, effected, and that the occur- 
rence of occasional flowers with two posterior petals like our 
No. 2 is a proof of this. But what, then, does the flower No. 1 
prove ; for in it there are two anterior petals? Where are the 
transitional forms between the 2-petalled and 3-petalled flowers 
and the normal? These forms are now arising at this moment 
on the very plants which bear the normal flowers, and interme- 
diate forms, if indeed there are any, are so rare that we have 
found none. If there are no trausitional forms in the one case, 
why need there have been transitional stages in the other ? * 
Take, again, the case of Streptocarpus No. 4: comparing it 
with the normal flower, it is seen that the median anterior petal 
is not * becoming aborted,” but is gone (Pl. LI. figs. 1 & 3). 
Now if this petal had gradually disappeared, the two stamens 
which in the normal flower stand on either side of it would have 
come nearerand nearer together until, on the total disappearance 
of the median anterior petal, the two stamens would stand 
together. But in this specimen there were not two stamens but 
one stamen, which tells the plain story that no such process of 
gradual atrophy of the anterior petal has occurred at all. On 
the contrary, the forces which combine to make the normal 
flower were driven instead to make the flower No. 4, and suc- 
* The following piece of evidence may not be without interest in this con- 
nexion. It is stated with regard to Scrophularia arguta that towards the end 
of summer the lowest branches springing from the stem bend downwards and 
penetrate the soil; the branches immediately above the lowest ones also bend 
downwards, but do not always enter the earth. These branches bear fertile 
flowers ; those which are below the soil are completely destitute of petals ; 
those which are on the surface have a four-lobed corolla whose divisions are 
nearly equal, like those of Veronica. The above account is taken from Masters, 
‘Vegetable Teratology,’ p. 334, and the original observation is recorded by 
Durieu de Maisonneuve in Bull. Soc. Bot. France, iii. 1856, p. 569, but unfor- 
tunately contains no information beyond that given here. 
