THE 



DIFFEEENT FOKMS OF FLOWEES 



as 



PLANTS OF THE SAME SPECIES. 



INTRODUCTION. 



THE subject of the present volume, namely the dif- 

 ferently formed flowers normally produced by certain 

 kinds of plantsj either on the same stock or on distinct 

 stocks, ought to have been treated by a professed bota- 

 nist, to which distinction I can lay no claim. As far as 

 the sexual relations of flowers are concerned, Linnaeus 

 long ago divided them into hermaphrodite, monoecious, 

 dioecious, and polygamous species. This fundamental 

 distinction, with the aid of several subdivisions in each 

 of the four classes, will .serve my purpose; but the 

 classification is artificial; and the groups often pass 

 into one another. 



The hermaphrodite class contains two interesting 

 sub-groups, namely, heterostyled and cleistogamic 

 plants; but there are several other less important 

 subdivisions, presently to be given, in which flowers 

 differing in various ways from one another are pro- 

 duced by the same species. 



Some plants were described by me several years ago, 

 in a series of papers read before the Linnean Society,* 



* "On the Two Forms or Di- of Primula, and on their remark- 

 morphic Condition iu the Species able Sexual isolations." ' Journal 



