286 METAMORPHY. 



Among the flowers in which petaloid development 

 of the stamens happens most frequently may be men- 

 tioned those in which the calyx is normally coloured, 

 as in Nigella damascena, Aguilegia, and Bclph'mium. 



M. Alph. de Candolle, in the * Neue Denkschriften,' 

 1841, described and figured a singular form of Viola 

 ocUyrata, known under the name of " Bruneau," in 

 Switzerland, in which the stamens are absent, and 

 their place supphed by a second row of petals, within 

 which is a third series of petals, representing, says M. 

 de Candolle, the inner row of stamens that theory 

 suggests should exist in the natural condition. More- 

 over, the carpels in this variety are five in number 

 instead of three. In Erica Tetralix the corolla may 

 not unfrequently be found divided to the base into its 

 constituent petals, and the place of the stamens occu- 

 pied by a series of petal-hke structures entirely desti- 

 tute of anther. 



In monocotyledonous flowers, especially those with a 

 coloured perianth, the substitution of segments of the 

 perianth for stamens occurs not unfrequently. M. 

 Seringe has observed this in the stamens of Lilium 

 Martagon, and there is in cultivation a variety of the 

 white lily, Lilium candidum, sometimes called the double 

 white lily, in which the segments of the perianth, in 

 place of being arranged in two rows, are greatly in- 

 creased in number, and disposed in a spiral manner. In 

 these flowers, not only are the stamens and pistils thus 

 modified, but also the upper leaves of the stem. In 

 so-called double tulips there is likewise a replacement 

 of stamens by coloured segments of the perianth, but 

 this happens generally in connection with an increase 

 in the number of organs. Moquin-Tandon remarks 

 having seen in a garden in the environs of Montpelier 

 a tuhp, the stamens of which showed all possible 

 stages of transition between the form proper to them 

 and that of the perianth. The pistil in this case was 

 transformed into several small leaves. Similar appear- 

 ances have been observed in Iris, Hyacinths, Nar- 



