352 Linnaan Society. 



PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 



LINNiEAN SOCIETY. 



June 6, 1848— E. Forster, Esq., V.P., in the Chair. 



Read a " Notice of some Peloria varieties of Viola canina, L." By 

 Edward Forbes, Esq., F.R.S., F.L.S., Professor of Botany in King's 

 College, London. 



These monstrosities were collected by Prof. Forbes in the Isle of 

 Portland in the month of April. The plants in which they occurred 

 were infested by the parasitic fungus figured in Sowerby's ' English 

 Fungi ' under the name of Granularia Viola, and afforded not only 

 many distortions of the foliaceous organs evidently due to the pre- 

 sence of the fungus, but also various monstrosities of the flower, 

 of which the author gives a particular description illustrated by 

 drawings. 



These were found chiefly in the small variety of Viola canina, 

 figured in the ' Supplement to English Botany' as Viola fiavicornis . 

 One of these plants had two two- spurred flowers exactly similar and 

 deviating from the ordinary structure in the following particulars : — 

 There were four sepals, all enlarged and diseased, the superior being 

 smaller than the others, the two lateral equal but abnormally large, 

 and the anterior largest and not quite regular. The petals were 

 also four in number, the two uppermost being regular and the two 

 lowermost spurred. Each of the former had the little tufts of hairs 

 seen on the lateral petals in the normal flower, and were similarly 

 pale at the base and lineated with purple, while the two spurred 

 petals were smooth and lineated. Of the four stamens the three 

 uppermost were normal, the fourth much enlarged ; there were no 

 antherine appendages, but at the bottom of each petal- spur there was 

 a strong ridge not usually present and as if representing these ap- 

 pendages. From these appearances the author infers that in these 

 instances the two superior petals were abortive, the tufts of hairs on 

 the two remaining superior petals showing that they correspond 

 with the two lateral petals of the ordinary flower ; and that the two 

 spurred petals were developed in the place of the ordinary single an- 

 terior petal. He regards the enlarged anterior stamen as consisting 

 of two, each making an unsuccessful effort to develope an appen- 

 dage ; and the enlarged anterior sepal also as made up of the union 

 of the two ordinary lower sepals. 



In the former case the floral envelopes were regulated by the num- 

 ber 4 : Prof. Forbes proceeds to describe a still more remarkable 

 case of Peloria, in which they were regulated by the number 3. 

 The three sepals are of normal and equal dimensions and the three 

 petals all spurred, and nearly but not quite equal, the odd one, which 

 is inferior, having a larger spur than either of the other two. There 

 is no tuft of hairs on any of the petals, but they are all lineated. The 

 stamina are five, all furnished with appendages, the two lowermost 

 of which, fully developed, penetrate the spur of the anterior petal, 

 while the spur of the left upper petal receives the fully- developed 



