CLASS D1DYNAMIA. 



125 



plants are much more dissimilar in aspect or general 

 character than these when compared with the Labi- 

 ate. That they are allied to plants of the 5th class, 

 however vaguely, is still certain from the quinary 

 divisions of the calyx and corolla. With regard to 

 the 2d order of this class, Angiospermia, their affi- 

 nities with plants of the 5th class is unquestionable, 

 several bearing, even with the irregular corolla, still 

 the plain rudiments of the 5th stamen, as in Foxglove, 

 Pentstemon, Bignonia, Antirrhinum, and others. The 

 Peloria, a variety of Antirrhinum Linaria, or Toad- 

 flax, is perhaps one of the most remarkable things 

 in the vegetable kingdom. This species, like the 

 rest, ordinarily bears a personate or close-lipped co- 

 rolla, from the lower segment sending out a long spur. 

 Internally is found 4 didynamous stamens, and the 

 slight rudiment of a 5th. But, in the Peloria, this 

 irregular flower is transformed into a regular one, with 

 an equal, 5-lobed, reflected, convex border, ending 

 below in 5 equidistant spurs ; and within containing 

 5 equal and perfect stamens. There is nothing here 

 of that monstrosity which characterizes double flow- 

 ers ; there are only 5 lobes to the border as in ordi- 

 nary, and only 5 stamens, but perfected, instead of 4 

 of unequal length, and the rudiment of a fifth. The 

 conclusion is, therefore, obvious, that this apparent 

 monstrosity, or departure from the ordinary course 

 of abortion and imperfection of parts, is, in reality, 

 the genuine symmetry, not merely of Antirrhinum, 

 but probably of all the genera of the 2d order of 

 Didynamia ; and, that the ordinary irregular figure of 

 the flowers of this class, and their abortion of parts, 

 is the real monstrosity, of which the rarely produced 

 regular flowers, as in Peloria, are the symmetrical 

 type ; and we see here another example of the great 

 11* 



