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Significant IDeetioee in Jfamiliar iflowers. 



By E. M. Hardinge, Glendale, U.S.A. 



IN the very centre of the wild carrot, at the hub of its wheel of 

 bloom, is one small, vivid crimson or purple spot. On 

 examination, this bit of brightness proves to be a dwarfed 

 and distorted cluster of sterile blossoms. 



We get a light upon its meaning when we see, in a tropical 

 member of the Parsley family, a little disc of red purple flowers in 

 the heart of the large disc of white ones. In our wild carrot the 

 rosy or purple blossoms of the central cluster set no seed, shed no 

 pollen, and are scarcely conspicuous enough to lure insects to the 

 fertile white blossoms which surround them. They are often so 

 distorted and so crowded together, that the colour-spot has no 

 symmetry, and we can scarcely believe that it has been, or could 

 be, a disc of delicate flowers like those at the outer circumference 

 of the wheel of bloom. Is this colour-spot a new departure or a 

 reminiscence ? The last supposition is quite as likely as the first, 

 for Nature's changes are often eliminations. 



Many common wild flowers are even now in process of change, 

 and in them the botanist finds organs that are dwindling, or traces 

 of organs that have almost entirely dwindled away. Thus, the 

 members of the great Crowfoot family — the Ratmnculacecz — show 

 a strong inclination to rid themselves of petals. Aconite, Colum- 

 bine, and Larkspur represent the initial steps in the process. In 

 these flowers the petals are present, but the sepals are so large and 

 brightly coloured as to be quite sufficient lure to insect visitors. 

 Indeed, bright and conspicuous sepals are borne by many members 

 of the Crowfoot tribe. 



The petals of such flowers are no longer necessary as insect 

 lures. They are, in fact, " thrown out of a job," and Nature, it 

 seems, offers them their choice of two alternatives : either they 

 must assume some new task in the floral division of labour, or 

 they are doomed to dwindle, in obedience to a general law of all 

 unused organs. The petals of the Columbine are assisted in the 

 advertising business by the sepals, which rival them in richness or 

 delicacy of tint, so they have taken up other duties in the floral 



