' FLOR.VL YART.VTrOX IN VEUONrCA PERSTCA 351 



FLORAL VARIATION IN VERONICA PERSICA. 

 Br T. A. Sprague, B.Sc, F.L.S. 



As a. lieteromoristic family, the ScrophulariacefB might be ex- 

 pected to exhibit considerable meristic variation in individual species 

 (see Journ. Bot. 1922, 231) ; and deviations from the normal number 

 of floral leaves are in fact fairly frequent, polymerous and oligo- 

 merous llowers having been found in nearly all the genera (Penzig, 

 Pdanzen-Terat. ed. 2, iii. 87). It has long been known that the 

 flowers of Veronica persica (better known as F. Buxhaicmii) were 

 unusually variable ; but, although numerous abnormal types have been 

 described, their relative frequency has not been fully investigated. 

 Yet the frequency of an abnormality may have an important bearing 

 on its phylogenetic significance. Worsdell {Principles of Plant 

 Teratoloqii, i. 5) distinguished ** reversionary " and "progressive" 

 abnormalities ; a third category seems to be required, the incomeq^iient , 

 including such as apparently lead nowhere, being neither reversionary 

 nor progressive. Individual inconsequent abnormalities may be ex- 

 pected to occur much less frequently than most individual reversionary 

 or progressive ones, hence statistical study may lead to their recognition. 



Jides Camus (Rev. Bot. v. 214, 219) considered that the presence 

 as an abnormality of a posterior sepal in certain species of Veronica 

 with a normally tetramerous calyx could not be used in support of the 

 hypothesis of a calyx primitively pentamerous. He pointed out that 

 an anterior fifth sepal had been observed in V. longifolia and 

 V. officinalis, and assumed that this invalidated the argument from 

 the occasional presence of a posterior sepal, since no one would regard 

 the occurrence of an anterior sepal in Veronica as a reversionary 

 phenomenon. He mentioned nothing about the relative frequency of 

 the posterior and anterior sepals, except that the former had been 

 observed in eight species, and the latter in two only. Out of a 

 thousand flowers of V. persica examined by me during Aug.-Sept., 

 1922, more than 2 per cent, had a posterior fifth sepal and none had 

 an anterior one. The frequent occurrence of the posterior sepal 

 supports the hypothesis of a primitively pentamerous calyx in Veronica, 

 whereas the undoubted rarity of an anterior sepal suggests that the 

 phenomenon may be an inconsequent abnormality. 



The 1000 flowers were taken at random from a kitchen-garden and 

 a field of mangolds on a farm at Bicknoller, Somerset. Seventy-three 

 (7-3 per cent.) were abnormal, 927 being normal. Flowers in which the 

 posterior corolla-lobe was undivided, or not divided as far as the middle, 

 were treated as " normal " in this respect, and those in which it was 

 divided at least to the middle were classed as "abnormal." Five of 

 the 73 abnormal flowers exhibited two kinds of abnormalityeach, so 

 that the total number of abnormalities was 78. A posterior sepal 

 appeared in 22 flowers ; the posterior corolla-lobe was bilobed at least 

 to the middle in 22 (completely divided in 14) ; one of the normally 

 suppressed anterior stamens was represented by a petaloid staniinode 

 in 21, and both anterior stamens re-appeared as petaloid staminodes 

 once.' Thus if we accept the hypothesis of a primitively pentamerous 

 flower in Veronica, ^Q of the 78 abnormalities may be regarded as 



