aOTANICAL SUBJECTS. 321 



Now the normal stamens of Aquileyia show no signs of spurs. 

 The curious part of this reversion Avas that in becoming petaloitl, 

 the stamens did not revert to plain petals, l)ut to small spurred 

 petals. Was the antlier of the Aqvilegia then a modification 

 of a spurred jjetal or leaf, or of an ordinary shaped leaf ? 



Again, in the Edinburgh Botanic Garden, I saw the Aconitum 

 Septentrionale. Normally, like other Aconitums, it has a 

 sepalous hood, enclosing two spurred nectaries on long stalks, 

 which are modifications of petals. In addition, this Aconitum 

 within the hood had two or three setie, which Avere evidentlv 

 abortions of the remaining petals. 



In some teratological forms, on this same plant, I found {a) 

 that one of these setie was transformed into a spurred nectar}' like 

 the other two, but it was not located within the hood. This same 

 specimen had a second sepal which was saccate with a commencino- 

 spur ; (b) had tlie normal two nectaries, Ijut only one of them was 

 inside the hood, antl the remaining three setas were also somewhat 

 spurred but much shorter, and the two side sepals were decidedly 

 spurred ; (c) had the upper sepal spurred, like that of Delphinium 

 (not hooded). One of the lower and one of the side sepals were 

 also prominently spurred. In addition, one petal was spurred and 

 enclosed in the upper sepal ; two other petals were also spurred, 

 and were located outside the upper sepal. A fourth petal was in 

 the state of seta, with a tendency to become spurred ; (d) this 

 specimen had two spurred petals (nectaries) within the hood, and 

 no setcB whatever. Tlie threes petals, which in some had been 

 represented by setie, in this were entirely suppressed. 



Now in the Delphinium the normal form has a long spurred 

 sepal, which encloses the spurry part only of two of the petals, 

 two other petals are small, and the fifth is entirely suppressed. 

 The remaining four sepals are slightly saccate near their tips. 



On the other hand, in the Aquileyia, all the segments of one 

 whorl are normally spurred, and in some double forms both 

 whorls are spurred. 



So that in these three allied genera, Aquileyia, Aconitum, and 

 Delphinium, the variation of the flower consists only in variations 

 of the spurring,* with or without suppression of parts. There can 



* The comparison of Delphinium and Aconitum is well shown in Asa 

 Gray's " Struct. Bot.," p. 188. 



4 p. 1724, ^ 



