Ill VARIABILITY OF SPECIES IN A STATE OF NATURE 79 



in one locality flo"svers varying from J inch to If inch in 

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

 and the petaloid sepals either broad or narrow, and varying 

 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. Dar^vin states that he carefully examined a large number 

 of plants of Geranium pha^um 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 which I have never seen exceeded ; yet they could not 

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



The folloAving examples of variation in important parts of 

 plants were collected by Mr. Darmn and have been copied 

 from his unpublished MSS. : — 



" De Candolle {3Iem. S.oc. Phjs. de Geneve, torn. 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 ^nth other species of the 

 genus." 



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

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

 {Mem. Soc. Phijs. de Geneve, tom. ii. p. 406) has often found 

 individuals in Cyclamen hederaefolium, in which the base of 

 the ovary was connected for a thii'd jmrt of its length vnth 

 the inferior part of the calyx." 



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

 d'Hist. Nat, tom. x. p. 134), speaking of some bushes of the 

 Gomphia olesefolia, which he at first thought formed a quite 

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

 des loges et un style qui 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 Rutacese 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. p. 258. 



