THE PRINCIPLE OF NUMBER. lU 



changes, whether in the individual or in its descendants, 

 through the law of " symmetrical increase or decrease." By 

 this I mean that the number of sepals, petals, and stamens 

 often vary together from the typical number by the addition 

 or subtraction of a member. Thus, in a single corymb of 

 an Elder, 4-, 5-, 6-merous flowers may be often found ; simi- 

 larly, while early blossoming Fuchsias may bear 3-merous 

 flowers, they are replaced later by the regularly 4-merous 

 ones. Although these changes frequently occur in tJie same 

 plant, they usually are not permanent. Yet they occasionally 

 appear to have become so, as in the terminal flowers of Adoxa 

 and Monotropa. On the other hand, the constant occurrence 

 and, therefore, specific character of 4-merous flowers in 

 Potentilla Tormenfilla, and 3-merous in Tillcea vmscosa, 1 

 should be inclined to attribute to the fixation of a symmo- 

 ti'ical reduction which has taken place from the permanent 

 5-merous type so characteristic of Potentilla, and many 

 genera of the Crassulacece. Not infrequently the difference 

 of number is pronounced by systeraatists as generic; thiis, 

 while Bnhia has 5-merous flowers, Galium has 4-mcrous. A 

 simitar ditference lies between Rata and Haploplnjllum* 



If a cause be looked for, it would seem to be merely a 

 question of nutrition. If the symmetry varies in the same 

 plant, it is obvious that a corolla of four petals could not 

 have been provided with the same amount of nutritive 

 material as a 5-merous one. But if it be a specific character, 

 as in Tormentil (which, it may be observed, affects the more 

 or less barren soil of heaths), then the change has become 

 fixed and is now hereditary. 



* By running the eye through the artificial keys at the commence- 

 ment of the Orders in the Genet a Plantarmnoi Bentham and Hooker, it 

 will be seen how frequently these authors regard the number of parts in 

 the Calyx and Corolla as a prominent generic character. 



