164 Retrograde Varieties 



known as " peloria/' or regular form of a 

 normally symmetric type ; they are large and ir- 

 regular on the stems and the vigorous branches 

 but slender and quinate on the weaker twigs. 

 Their beauty and highly interesting anomalous 

 character has been the cause of their being de- 

 scribed many times, and nearly always as a 

 novelty; they have been recently re-introduced 

 into horticulture as such, though they were al- 

 ready cultivated before the middle of the last 

 century. About that time very good descrip- 

 tions with plates were published in the journal 

 ^' Flora '' by Vrolik, but afterwards they seem 

 to have been forgotten. The peloric variety 

 of the foxglove always comes true from seed, 

 though in the strict sense of the word which 

 we have chosen for our discussion, it does not 

 seem to be a constant and pure variety. 



It is very interesting to compare old botani- 

 cal books, or even old drawings and engravings 

 containing figures of anomalous plants. The 

 celebrated Pinacothec of Munich contains an 

 old picture by Holbein (1495-1543) representing 

 St. Sebastian in a flower-garden. Of the plants 

 many are clearly recognizable, and among 

 others there is one of the *^ one-leaved " variety 

 of the strawberry, which may still be met 

 with in botanical gardens. In the year 

 1671 a Dutch botanist, Abraham Hunting pub- 



