Ill A^ARIABILITY OF SPECIES IN A STATE OF NATURE 79 



in one locality flowers varying from ^ inch to If inch in 

 diameter ; the bracts varying from 1 1 inch to 4 inches across ; 

 and the petaloid sepals either broad or narrow, and varyin<'- 

 in number from five to ten. Though generally pure white 

 on their upper surface, some specimens are a full pink, while 

 others have a decided bluish tinge. 



Mr. Darwin states that he carefully examined a large number 

 of plants of Geranium phseum and G. pyrenaicum (not perhaps 

 truly British but frequently found wild), which had escaped 

 from cultivation, and had spread by seed in an open planta- 

 tion ; and he declares that " the seedlings varied in almost 

 every single character, both in their flowers and foliage, to a 

 degree Avhich I have never seen exceeded ; yet they could not 

 have been exposed to any great change of their conditions."^ 



The following examples of variation in important parts of 

 plants were collected by Mr. Darwin and have been copied 

 from his unpublished MSS. : — 



" De Candolle (Mem. Soc. Phjs. de Geneve, tom. ii. part ii. 

 p. 217) states that Papaver bracteatum and P. orientale present 

 indifferently two sepals and four petals, or three sepals and 

 six petals, which is sufficiently rare with other species of the 

 genus." 



"In the Primulacese and in the great class to which this 

 family belongs the unilocular ovarium is free, but M. Dubury 

 (Alem. Soc. Phys. de Geneve, tom. ii. p. 406) has often found 

 individuals in Cyclamen hedersefolium, in which the base of 

 the ovary was connected for a third part of its length with 

 the inferior part of the calyx." 



" M. Aug. St. Hilaire (Sur la Gynobase, Mem. des Mm. 

 d'Hisf. Nat, tom. x. p. 1.34), speaking of some bushes of the 

 Gomphia olesefolia, which he at first thought formed a quite 

 distinct species, says : ' Voila done dans un meme individu 

 des loges et un style c[ui se rattachent tantot a un axe vertical, 

 et tantot a un gynobase ; done celui-ci n'est qu'un • axe veri- 

 table ; mais cet axe est deprime au lieu d'etre vertical." He 

 adds (p. 151), 'Does not all this indicate that nature has 

 tried, in a manner, in the family of Rutaceoe to produce from 

 a single multilocular ovary, one-styled and symmetrical, 

 several unilocular ovaries, each with its own style.' And he 



^ Animals and Plants under Domestication, vol. ii. ]>. 2r)8. 



