GYNGCIUM. 399 
while in a flower of Cuta/pa a solitary perfect stamen, and 
a complete absence of the sterile ones usually present, 
have been observed. This might have been anticipated 
from the frequent deficiencies in the staminal whorl in 
these plants under what are considered to be normal 
conditions. Reduction of the staminal whorl is also 
not unfrequent in Trifoliwm repens and 1’. hybridwin, and 
has been seen in Delphiniwm, &e.' 
Meiophylly of the gynecium.—Numerical inequality in 
the case of the pistil, as compared with the other 
whorls of the flower, is of such common occurrence, 
under ordinary circumstances, that in some text-books 
it is looked on as the normal condition, and a flower 
which is isomerous in the outer whorls is by some 
writers not considered numerically irregular if the 
number of the carpels does not coincide with that of 
the other organs. 
But in this place it is only necessary to allude to devia- 
tions from the number of carpels that are ordinarily found 
in the particular species under observation. As illus- 
trations the following may be cited :—Arenaria tetra- 
queta, which has normally three styles, and a six-valved 
capsule, has been seen with two styles, and a four or 
five-valved capsule. Moquin relates an instance in 
Polygala vulgaris where there was but a single carpel, 
a condition analogous to that which occurs normally 
im the allied genus Mozinna. Reseda luteola occasion- 
ally occurs with two carpels only, while Aconites, Del- 
phiniums, Nigellas, and Peeonies frequently experience 
a like diminution in their pistil. 
In a flower of Papaver Rhwas the writer has recently 
met with an ovary with four stigmas and four parietal 
placentee only, and to Mr. Worthington Smith he is 
indebted for sketches of crocus blooms with two, and 
in one instance only a solitary carpel. 
Moquin cites the fruit of a wild bramble (/twhus) 
' Cramer, ‘ Bildungsabweich,’ p. 90. 
