468 Mutations 



have never been seen in the wild state. The 

 only writer who succeeded in sowing seeds of 

 the peloric variety was Wildenow and he got 

 only very few seedlings. But even in artificial 

 pollination the result is the same, the anthers 

 seeming to be seriously affected by the change. 

 I tried both self-fertilization and cross-pollina- 

 tion, and only with utmost care did I succeed 

 in saving barely a hundred seeds. In order 

 to obtain them I was compelled to operate on 

 more than a thousand flowers on about a dozen 

 peloric plants. 



The variety being wholly barren in nature, 

 the assumption that the plants in the different 

 recorded localities might have a common origin 

 is at once excluded. There must have been at 

 least nearly as many mutations as localities. 

 This strengthens the hope of seeing such a mu- 

 tation happen in one's own garden. It should 

 also be remembered that peloric flowers are 

 known to have originated in quite a number 

 of different species of Linaria, and also with 

 many of the allied species within the range of 

 the Labiatiflorae. 



I will now give the description of my own ex- 

 periment. Of course this did not give the ex- 

 pected result in the first year. On the contrary, 

 it was only after eight years' work that I had 

 the good fortune of observing the mutation. 



