466 Mutations 



I once had a lot of nearly a hundred specimens 

 of this fine variety, and it was a most curious 

 and beautiful sight to observe the many thou- 

 sands of nearly regular flowers blooming at the 

 same time. Some degree of variability was of 

 course present, even in a large measure. The 

 number of the spurs varied betweenfour and six, 

 transgressing these limits in some instances, but 

 never so far as to produce really one-spurred 

 flowers. Comparing this variety with the ordi- 

 nary type, two ways of passing over from the 

 one to the other might be imagined. One would 

 entail a slow increase of the number of the 

 peloric flowers on each plant, combined with a 

 decrease of the number of the normal ones, the 

 other a sudden leap from one extreme to the 

 other without any intermediate steps. The 

 latter might easily be overlooked in field obser- 

 vations and their failure may not have the value 

 of direct proof. They could never be over- 

 looked, on the other hand, in experimental cul- 

 ture. 



The first record of the peloric toad-flax is that 

 of Zioberg, a student of Linnaeus, who found it 

 in the neighborhood of Upsala. This curious 

 discovery was described by Rudberg in his dis- 

 sertation in the year 1744. Soon afterwards 

 other localities were discovered by Link near 

 Gottingen in Germany about 1791 and after- 



