:Mat 1, 1865.] 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



105 



like the flower of a cowslip ; and within this were 

 five perfect stamens, and a perfect pistU. 



Fiij. 74. — Primrose. 



a, Exfernal appearance. c, Inner Corolla opened. 



h, Calyx turned back, corolla removed, showing: inner corolla. 



IV^OOD Anemoke, Anemone neraorosa (fig. 75). — 

 A very iateresting- specimen gathered near Ciren- 



Fig. 75. — Wood Anemone. 



cester in 1S49 or 1850. The flower was perfect in 

 every respect, but there was an extra fully-developed 

 petal produced amongst the three leaves below the 

 flower, looking exactly as if it had fallen from the 



flower, and been caught by the leaves. But there 

 it grew, as firmly fixed as the leaves themselves, 

 showing that the three cauline leaves in this plant 

 are really part of the flower, and ought to be con- 

 sidered as calj'x, the petals and other organs being 

 elevated on a stalk, as is the case with the pistils 

 only in Geum rivale. Similarly the involucre of 

 Eriantkus and some others may be considered as 

 true calyces. 



Toadflax, Linaria vulgaris (fig. 71). — Mobberley, 

 Cheshire, 1818. A remarkably beautiful instance of 

 what is called the peloria form of the flower. The 

 plant had been cultivated in a garden, and I gathered 

 several spikes which produced flowers with two or 

 three spurs ; but one flower had become perfectly 

 regular. The general form of the flower was that 

 of a Florence oil flask, with a rather wide neck, the 

 mouth divided into six teeth which were rolled 

 backwards. There were six spurs curved upwards, 

 and set equally round the base of the flower ; and 

 within the tube of the corolla were six equal stamens. 



Calceoiakia. — In 1857 I observed several flowers 

 of a calceolaria in a green-house, which had taken 

 on a perfectly regular form, being urceolate like the 

 flowers of a heath. The change was in this case 

 effected by the enlargement of the upper and smaller 

 lip of the corolla, which was well shown in some 

 intermediate specimens where the change was only 

 half accomplished. Symmetry and regularity tip- 

 pear to be the rule in nature, and when we find a 

 flower irregular in form, it is on account of the total 

 suppression, the imperfect development, the abnor- 

 mal increase, or the multiplication of certain parts, 

 the change always taking place under ordinary cir- 

 cumstances ; but the peloria form described in the 

 two cases above appears to be an effort of nature, 

 under the stimulus of extraordinary circumstances, 

 to return to the regular type ; and yet it is rather 

 remarkable that when that eflbrt is successful, and 

 a regular sjoiimetrical flower is produced from an 

 irregular one, the result is not nearly so beautiful as 

 the irregular but usual form. 



A Cucumber grew a few years ago in my own 

 garden, where one of the short prickles upon the 

 fruit had grown out into a long curled tendril. 



It would occupy too much space in this paper to 

 point out the various teachings of all these strange 

 forms. Such specimens exercise an important 

 bearing upon the doctrine of morphology, that 

 " Pons asinorum " of young botanists ; but my 

 intention is not now to write an essay upon that 

 subject, but chiefly to direct the attention of begin- 

 ners to a very interesting branch of botany, and to 

 ask them to be on the look-out for imperfect as well 

 as perfect specimens of plants, assuring them that 

 careful notes of what they observe cannot fail to be 

 of some use in the cause of botanical science, and 

 may serve to elucidate hidden or imperfectly undci- 

 stood points of physiology. 



