Ranunculus Bulbosus Semiplenus. 
245 
other hand on plants growing as they often do in sandy 
localities, the flowers often possess a slightly increased 
number of petals. 
In these abnormal flowers there are usually six or, 
rarely, seven petals, very seldom more than 10-12. They 
are as a rule ordinary petals, but there sometimes occur 
some that are much smaller and narrower and are ob- 
viously metamorphosed stamens. This metamorphosis 
is often only partial, and the famil- 
iar intermediate stages are exhib- 
ited. The abortive stamens are 
usually to be found among the most 
peripheral ones ; but they are not 
necessarily the outermost ones, di- 
rectly adjoining the corolla. 1 
The potentiality of this doubling 
is therefore present in a semi-latent 
condition in the wild plants of this 
species growing in this neighbor- 
hood. I regard this race, therefore, 
as a half race in contradistinction 
to the normal double race which is 
only known to me from the pub- 
lished records. Obviouslv the two 
J 
possess the same character; which 
Fig. 50. Ranunculus bul- 
bosus semiplenus. A 
flower with 31 petals 
(partly petalodic sta- 
mens) ; the only one 
amongst 4425 flowers. 
It occurred on a qua- 
ternary branch in my 
culture of October, 
1892. See the series 
of figures on page 252. 
is, however, active in the one case 
but latent or semi-latent in the other. 
It seemed to me important to discover whether it was 
possible to obtain the double from the half race by selec- 
tion. According to the views advanced in this work 
this should be possible, but not every attempt need neces- 
sarily be successful. But if it does succeed the change 
1 See GOEBEL, Jahrb. f. wiss. Bot., Vol. XVII, pp. 217-219. 
