REGULAR PELORIA. 221 
hairs on the lateral petals; 4, equal stamens whose 
anthers are sometimes entirely destitute of the pro- 
longed crest which forms so prominent a feature under 
ordinary circumstances ; 5, erect, not curved styles, and 
the stigmas not prolonged into a beak, but having a 
more or less capitate form; ovary with three or five 
cells, ovules normal. 
These are cases where the change in question is 
most strongly marked, the bi-lateral is completely 
replaced by the radiating symmetry. The absence of 
the usual nectary, and of hairs on the side petals, the 
alterations in the form of the style, etc., all show how 
much the process of fertilisation must be altered from 
that which occurs under ordinary circumstances. In 
some of the double violets now cultivated in gardens, a 
similar regularity of proportion in the parts of the flower 
may be seen combined with the substitution of petals 
for stamens and pistils, and with the development of 
an increased number of petal-hke organs.’ Between 
these cases and the ordinary spurred forms as well as 
those with an increased number of spurs, many inter- 
mediate forms may be met with. That such regularity 
should occur in this family is not to be wondered at 
seeing that there is a whole sub-division of the order 
(Alsodeie) in which regular flowers are the rule. 
In cultivated Pelargoniums the central flower of the 
umbel or “truss” frequently retains its regularity of 
proportion, so as closely to approximate to the normal 
condition in the alhed genus Geraniwm; this resemblance 
is rendered greater by the fact that, under such circum- 
stances, the patches of darker colour characteristic of 
the ordinary flower are completely wanting ; the flower 
is as uniform in colour as in shape. LHven the nectary 
which is adherent to the upper surface of the pedicel 
in the normal flower disappears—sometimes completely, 
at other times partially. The direction of the stamens 
and style, and even that of the whole flower, becomes 
1 Similar cases are figured in ‘ Hort. Eystettens. Ic. Pl. Vern.,’ fol. 4, 
f.1,2. Viola martia multiplici flore. 
