486 Mutations 



cies could be quoted as proof. The family of the 

 labiates seems to be essentially rich in terminal 

 pelories, as for instance in the wild sage or 

 Salvia and the dead-nettle or Lamium. Here 

 the pelories have long and straight corolla- 

 tubes, which are terminated by a whorl of four 

 or ^VQ segments. Such forms often occur in 

 the wild state and seem to have a geographic 

 distribution as narrowlv circumscribed as in 

 the case of many small species. Those of the 

 labiates chiefly belong to southern Europe and 

 are unknown at least in some parts of the other 

 countries. On the contrary terminal pelories 

 of Scropliularia nodosa are met with from time 

 to time in Holland. Such facts clearly point 

 to a common origin, and as only the terminal 

 flowers are affected by the malformation, the 

 fertility of the whole plant is evidently not seri- 

 ously infringed upon. 



Before leaving the labiates, we may cite 

 a curious instance of pelorism in the toad-flax, 

 which is quite different from the ordinary 

 peloric variety. This latter may be considered 

 from a morphologic standpoint to be owing to 

 a five-fold repetition of the middle part of the 

 underlip. This conception would at once ex- 

 plain the occurrence of ^ve spurs and of the 

 orange border all around the corolla-tube. We 

 might readily imagine that any other of the five 



