410 SUPPRESSION . 



following : Ranunculacece, Cruciferce, Gari/ophyllaceoij 

 Violacece, LegiiminoscBy Onagracece, Jasminacece, Orchi- 

 dacece. It will be observed that these are all orders 

 wherein suppi'^ssion of the whole or part of the outer 

 floral whorls takes place in certain genera as a constant 

 occurrence. 



Again, it may be remarked that many of these orders 

 show a tendency towards a regular diminution of the 

 assumed normal number of their parts ; thus, among 

 Onagracece, Circeia and Lopezia may be referred to, 

 the former normally dimerous, the latter having only 

 one perfect petal. So in fuschias, a very common 

 deviation consists in a trimerous and rarely a dimerous 

 symmetry of the flower. 



Although, if the absolute number of genera or orders 

 be counted, there appears to be little difference in the 

 frequency of the occurrence of suppression in irregular 

 flowers as contrasted with regular flowers, yet if the 

 individual instances could be counted in the two groups 

 respectively it would be found that suppression is 

 more common among irregular than in regular flowers. 

 Thus, the number of individual instances of flowers 

 in which the perianth is defective is comparatively 

 large among Violacece, Leguminosce, and Orchidacem. 

 This statement hardly admits of precise statistical 

 proof; still, it is believed that any observer who pays 

 attention to the subject must come to the same con- 

 clusion. This is but another illustration of the fact 

 that conditions which are abnormal in one plant con- 

 stitute the natural arrangement in others. 



As to the suppressions that occur in the case of 

 the sexual organs, and the relations they bear to di- 

 morphism, diclinism, &c., but little stress has been 

 laid on them in this place, because theu' chief interest 

 is in a physiological point of view, and is treated of in 

 the writings of Mohl, Sprengel, Darwin, Hildebrand, 

 and others. All that need be said here is, that tera- 

 tology affords very numerous illustrations of those 

 intermediate conditions which are also found, under 



