410 SUPPRESSION. 
following :—Ranunculacee, Cruciferae, Caryophyllacee, 
Violacee, Leguminose, Onagracee, Jasminacee, Orchi- 
dacee. It will be observed that these are all orders 
wherein suppression of the whole or part of the outer 
floral whorls takes place in certain genera as a constant 
occurrence. 
Again, it may be remarked that many of these orders 
show a tendency towards a regular diminution of the 
assumed normal number of their parts; thus, among 
Onagracee, Circeia and Lopezia may be referred to, 
the former normally dimerous, the latter havmg only 
one perfect petal. So in fuschias, a very common 
deviation consists in a trimerous and rarely a dimerous 
symmetry of the flower. 
Although, if the absolute number of genera or orders 
be counted, there appears to be little difference in the 
frequency of the occurrence of suppression in irregular 
flowers as contrasted with regular flowers, yet if the 
individual instances could be counted in the two groups 
respectively it would be found that suppression 1s 
more common among irregular than in regular flowers. 
Thus, the number of individual instances of flowers 
in which the perianth is defective is comparatively 
large among Violacew, Lequminose, and Orchidacee. 
This statement hardly admits of precise statistical 
proof; still, it is believed that any observer who pays 
attention to the subject must come to the same con- 
clusion. This is but another illustration of the fact 
that conditions which are abnormal in one plant con- 
stitute the natural arrangement im others. 
As to the suppressions that occur in the case of 
the sexual organs, and the relations they bear to di- 
morphism, diclinism, &e., but little stress has been 
laid on them in this place, because their chief interest 
is in a physiological point of view, and is treated of in 
the writings of Mohl, Sprengel, Darwin, Hildebrand, 
and others. All that need be said here is, that tera- 
tology affords very numerous illustrations of those 
intermediate conditions which are also found, under 
