

TORREYA 



Vol. 41 March-April. 1941 No. 2 



Floral Abnormalities in Linaria vulgaris 



With Notes on a Method by Which New Genera May Arise 



W. H. Camp and Charles Gilly 



It is not unusual for zygomorphic (irregular) flowers to exhibit 

 some form of abnormality by becoming partially or even com- 

 pletely regular. One of the more commonly observed types is 

 that wherein flowers normally with one corolla spur produce five- 

 spurred forms. This phenomenon was observed by the early botan- 

 ists but seems to have been first given a name by Linnaeus.^ He 

 called it Pcloria, meaning a prodigy or monster, a term derived 

 from the Greek and applied to the abnormal forms of various 

 flowers, particularly those of Butter-and-Eggs, Linaria vulgaris 

 Hill," with five spurs and five stamens. Masters^ in his extended 



^Linnaeus C. De Peloria. Pp. [vii] 18 [iv]. 1 plate. Upsala. 1744. Except 

 for the various dedications and closing poetry, this is a dissertation written 

 by Linnaeus and "defended" by one Daniel Rudberg before the faculty at 

 Upsala. We were fortunate to have in the Library of the New York Botanical 

 Garden a rare original copy of this thesis, and wherein the plate differs 

 markedly from that of the more generally quoted and certainly better illus- 

 trated Amoenitates Academicae, at least that of the 1787 [3rd] edition which 

 is before us. The texts of the two are essentially the same, thus explaining 

 ■ the difficulty one has in reconciling the plate of the Third Edition with its 

 legend. It is also of interest to note that, here, peloria was considered a 

 genus, although it was clearly recognized as consisting of abnormal states of 

 various genera. Considering that this was written only nine years prior to 

 the publication of the Species Plantarum, we can realize the state of flux 

 in which the nomenclatural concepts of Linnaeus were during this period, for 

 by 1753 he dropped peloria as a genus. 



-Antirrhinum Linaria of Linnaeus' Species Plantarum, 1753. 



^ Masters, Maxwell T. Vegetable Teratology. London, 1869. 



ToRREYA for January-February (Vol. 41: 1-32) was issued February 7, 1941. 

 ToRREYA for March- April (Vol. 41 : 33-72) was issued April 21, 1941. 



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