in VARIABILITY OF SPECIES IN A STATE OF NATURE 79 
in one locality flowers varying from | inch to 1 f inch in 
diameter; the bracts varying from li inch to 4 inches across; 
and the petaloid sepals either broad or narrow, and varying 
in number from five to ten. Though generally pure white 
on their upper surface, some specimens are a full pink, while 
others have a decided bluish tinge. 
Mr. Darwin states that he carefully examined a large number 
of plants of Geranium phaeum and G. pyrenaicum (not perhaps 
truly British but frequently found wild), which had escaped 
from cultivation, and had spread by seed in an open planta¬ 
tion ; and he declares that “ the seedlings varied in almost 
every single character, both in their flowers and foliage, to a 
degree which I have never seen exceeded ; yet they could not 
have been exposed to any great change of their conditions.” 1 
The following examples of variation in important parts of 
plants were collected by Mr. Darwin and have been copied 
from his unpublished MSS. :— 
“ I)e Candolle {Mem. Soc. Phys. de Geneve , tom. ii. part ii. 
p. 217) states that Papaver bracteatum and P. orientale present 
indifferently two sepals and four petals, or three sepals and 
six petals, which is sufficiently rare with other species of the 
genus.” 
“ In the Primulaceie and in the great class to which this 
family belongs the unilocular ovarium is free, but M. Dulniry 
(Mem. Soc. Phys. de Gcnhe, tom. ii. p. 406) has often found 
individuals in Cyclamen hedersefolium, in which the base of 
the ovary was connected for a third part of its length with 
the inferior part of the calyx.” 
“ M. Aug. St. Hilaire (Sur la Gynobase, Mem. des Mus. 
d'Hisf. Nat., tom. x. p. 134), speaking of some bushes of the 
Gomphia oletefolia, which he at first thought formed a quite 
distinct species, says : ‘ Yoihi done dans un meme individu 
des loges et un style qui se rattachent tantot a un axe vertical, 
et tantot a un gynobase; done celui-ci n’est qu’un axe veri¬ 
table ; mais cet axe est deprime au lieu d’etre vertical.” He 
adds (p. 151), ‘Does not all this indicate that nature has 
tried, in a manner, in the family of Rutacese to produce from 
a single multilocular ovary, one-styled and symmetrical, 
several unilocular ovaries, each with its own style.’ And he 
1 A n i mats and Plants under Domestication, vol. ii. p. 258. 
