Chap. XI. FLOWERS. 407 



sionally vary by layers; and some kinds are so little certain in 

 character that they are called by floriculturists " catch-flowers." 53 

 Mr. Dickson has ably discussed the " running " of particoloured or 

 striped carnations, and says it cannot be accounted for by the 

 compost in which they are grown : " layers from the same clean 

 " flower would come part of them clean and part foul, even when 

 " subjected to precisely the same treatment; and frequently one 

 " flower alone appears influenced by the taint, the remainder coming 

 " perfectly clean." 54 This running of the parti-coloured flowers 

 apparently is a case of reversion by buds to the original uniform 

 tint of the species. 



I will briefly mention some other cases of bud- variation to show 

 how many plants belonging to many orders have varied in their 

 flowers; and many orhers might be added. I have seen on a snap- 

 dragon (Antirrhinum ma jus) white, pink, and striped flowers on 

 the same plant, and branches with striped flowers on a red-coloured 

 variety. On a double stock (Mathiola incana) I have seen a branch 

 bearing single flowers ; and on a dingy-purple double variety of 

 the wall-flower (Chtiranthus chriri), a branch which had reverted to 

 the ordinary copper colour. On other branches of the same plant, 

 some flowers were exactly divided across the middle, one half being 

 purple and the other coppery; but some of the smaller petals 

 towards the centre of these same flowers were purple longitudinally 

 streaked with coppery colour, or coppery streaked with purple. 

 A Cyclamen 55 has been observed to bear white and pink flowers of 

 two forms, the one resembling the Persicum strain, and the other 

 the Coum strain. Oenothera biennis has been seen 56 bearing flowers 

 of three different colours. The hybrid Gladiolus colcilii occasionally 

 bears uniformly coloured flowers, and one case is recorded w of all 

 the flowers on a plant thus changing colour. A Fuchsia has been 

 seen 58 bearing two kinds of flowers. MirabUis jalapa is eminently 

 sportive, sometimes bearing on the same root pure red, yellow, and 

 white flowers, and others striped with various combinations of 

 these three colours. 59 The plants of the Mirabilis, which bear 

 such extraordinarily variable flowers in most, probably in all, cases, 

 owe their origin, as shown by Prof. Lecoq, to crosses between 

 differently coloured varieties. 



Leaves and Shoots. — Changes, through bud-variation, in fruits and 

 flowers have hitherto been treated of; incidentally some remarkable 

 modifications in the leaves and shoots of the rose and Paritium, and 



53 « Gard. Chron.,' 1843, p. 135. 58 ' Gard. Chron.,' 1850, p 53(5. 



54 Ibid., 1842, p. 55. 59 Brauu, ' Kay Soe. Bot. Mem.* 

 ' Gard. Chron.,' 1867, p. 23 \ 1853, p. 31 5 ; Hopkirk's 'Flora Ano- 

 Gartner, ' Ba-tarderzeuguog,' s. mala,' p. 164 ; Lecoq, ' Geograph. 



305. Bot. de l'Europe,' torn, iii., 1854, p. 



57 Mr. D. Beaton, n 'Cottage G r- 405 ; and ' De la Fecondation,' 1862, 



dener,' I860, p. 250. p. 303. 



55 



5« 



