186 



THE FLO WEE. 



<ie 



340. But in a Lupine-blossom, of equally near relationship, 

 a casual observer might fail to recognize the very same type, 

 although disguised only by cohesions. For while the two pos- 

 terior sepals are united to the tip on one side of the blossom, the 

 three others are similarly united into 

 one body on the anterior side, giving 

 the appearance of two sepals instead 

 of five : in the corolla, the two keel- 

 petals are more strictly united into a 

 slender scythe-shaped or sickle-shaped 

 body ; so that the petals might with 

 the unwary pass for four: in the 

 androecium, the coalescence includes all 

 ten stamens (Fig. 346), which is an 

 approach to regularity. 



341. The 5-merous symmetry of the 

 Violet-blossom is complete until the 

 gyncecium is reached (but with only 

 one circle of stamens) ; the main irregu- 

 larity of the perianth is in the anterior 

 petal, with its nectariferious sac at base 

 (Fig. 349-351) ; the two stamens near- 

 est this send into the sac curious appendages, which the other 

 three do not possess ; the gynoecium is composed of three car- 

 @ pels coalescent into one compound ovary in a 



^^fflii manner hereafter explained. In Antirrhinum 



>^ and Linaria (Fig. 480, 481), there is a similar 

 irregularity accompanying coalescence of the 

 ^ petals, the anterior one being extended at base 

 into a nectariferous sac or hollow spur. 1 The 

 flower of a Lobelia (Fig. 488) has the same 

 numerical plan and symmetry as that of Viola 

 (except that the gyno3cium is dimerous) ; but 

 members are adnate below and coalescent above, and the 

 corolla is irregular through unequal coalescence of the five petals, 

 and the absence of coalescence down one side. 



1 PELORIA is a name given by Linnaeus to an occasional monostrosity of 

 these flowers (imitated in sundry others), in which the base of every petal, or 

 answering part of the corolla, is prolonged downward into a sac or spur. 

 The sac is, morphologically considered, a departure from normal regularity : 

 in the monster, symmetrical regularity is restored by the development of four 

 more sacs. 



FIG. 349. Flower of Viola sagittata. 350. Its sepals and petals displayed. 351. 

 Diagram of a Violet-blossom, from Eichler, with bract or subtending leaf (below), a pair 

 of bractlets (lateral), and axis to which the subtending leaf belongs (above or posterior). 



