The Origin of Striped Flowers. 



113 



of reversion of varieties to their parent species, and there- 

 fore to suggest that the characters of the latter were not 

 lost when the variety originated, but only became latent. 



§ 13. VILMORIN'S SUGGESTION AS TO THE ORIGIN OF 



STRIPED FLOWERS. 



One of the oldest and best-known instances both of 

 bud - variations and of 

 sectorial splitting is af- 

 forded by certain so- 

 called variegated garden 

 flowers and particularly 

 by the annual Larkspurs, 

 Delphiniiim Ajacis and 

 D. Consolida. All phases 

 of the phenomenon can 

 be followed in this case 

 with great ease, for from 

 time immemorial these 

 varieties have borne 

 flowers which show the 

 most varied striping on 

 a background of a dif- 

 ferent color; and they 

 also produce flowers a 

 half or a third or some 

 other fraction of which 

 uniformly bears the color 

 which commonly only 

 appears in stripes (Fig. 



19). Flowers of this Fig. 17. Delphinium Consolida stria- 

 1 . , , , tuni plenum. A plant in flower. 



kmd may be scattered 



over the whole plant, but are oftener distributed in such 



