144 Miscellaneous. 



MONSTROUS FLOWERS OF PELARGONIUMS. 



The following extract from a paper read by Mr. Sowerby at the Con- 

 versazione Meeting of the Royal Botanic Society in the Regent's Park, 

 describes an interesting case of monstrosity. After pointing out the 

 distinguishing characters of the genera Geranium and Pelargonium, 

 Mr. Sowerby proceeded to say, " The gardener, as in this case, when 

 he finds notlaing but external beauty to recommend a plant, endea- 

 vours, by selecting the most perfect and then cultivating it highly, to 

 increase in the succeeding produce both the beauty of colour and of 

 form ; and as the beauty of form depends upon the same elements as 

 that of colour, that is, as before explained, upon the indication of 

 perfect adaptation to the end, or the resemblance of that indication, so 

 a full round form is especially aimed at by the cultivator of flowers, 

 and the Pelargonium-fancier endeavours to obtain five broad and 

 equal petals, to form a round flower, with the upper two deeply and 

 brilliantly coloured to produce a contrast to the three lower and light- 

 coloured ones ; but with all his care the flowers do not come con- 

 stant, and now and then one will play the truant and sport as he 

 calls it, and this commonly happens amongst the most petted or 

 highest cultivated varieties. When the dark colour disappears from 

 the upper petals altogether, and the petals become equal in size and 

 form, it will be observed that the characteristic tubular nectary also 

 disappears. The want of the nectary or honey-tube is also accom- 

 panied by a regular arrangement of five anther-bearing and five abor- 

 tive filaments. The white varieties are less liable to this change than 

 those with rose- or salmon-coloured petals, and it is also rare among 

 the new fancy varieties ; frequently it occurs in the central flower of 

 the truss. In some flowers the nectary is only shortened, and in 

 others a small spot will remain on one petal when the nectary is ab- 

 sent. In the fancy variety called Yetmannianum grandiflormn, which 

 has spots on all the petals, the spots become equal, the two large 

 spots being reduced. An additional petal also accompanies the change 

 in a few cases. One plant of the Beauty of Clapham, a rose-coloured 

 variety, has almost every flower changed more or less. Thus it ap- 

 pears that cultivation not only makes one species of plant appear to 

 run into another, but may destroy a remarkable generic character, 

 consisting of the presence of an important organ in the flower, &c. 

 Thus the gardener seems by over-cultivation to reduce his flower to 

 a lower standard, but I do not think this is exactly the case ; for 

 although he may apparently reduce a Cape Pelargonium to an Euro- 

 pean Geranium in the eye of a botanist, or partly so, still he would 

 have a more truly beautiful flower if he could obtain a full truss of 

 large rose-coloured or pink flowers : we would reconnuend a trial of 

 the seed from these sporting flowers." 



THE TRANSFORMATION OF MOLLUSCA. 



It has been supposed that Sars was the first naturalist who had 

 observed that the young of the Gasteropodous Mollusca, when they 

 were first hatched, were of a very diiferent form from their parents. 



