LESSON I'S.J' IKREGDLAR AND TTNSTMMETRICAL FLOWERS 91 



it, at first view, at least in cases where the plan is more or less 

 obscured by the leaving out {obliteration) of one or more of the 

 members of the same set, or by some in- 

 equality in their size and shape. The 

 latter circumstance gives rise to 



244. Irregular Flowers. This name is 

 ^ven to blossoms in which the different 

 members of the same sort, as, for exam- 

 ple, the petals or the stamens, are unlike 

 in size or in form. We have familiar 



cases of the 

 sort in the 

 Larkspur 

 (Fig. 183,' 

 184), and 

 Monkshood 

 (Fig. 185, 

 186); also 

 in the Vio- 

 let (Fig. 181, 182). In the latter it 

 is the corolla principally which is ir- 

 regular, one of the petals being larger 

 than the rest, and extended at the 

 base into a hollow protuberance or 

 spur. In the Larkspur (Fig. 183), 

 both the calyx and the corolla par- 

 ) take of the irregularity. This and 

 the Monkshood are likewise good ex- 

 amples of 



245. Unsymmetrlcal Flowers. We 

 call them unsymmetrical, when the 

 different sets of organs do not agree 

 in the number of their parts. The 

 irregular calyx of Larkspur (Fig. 183, 184) consists of five sepals, 

 one of which, larger than the rest, is prolonged behind into a large 

 spur; but the corClla is made of only four petals (of two shapes); 



FIG. 18]. Flower of a Violet. 183. Its calyx and corolla displayed: the live smaller 

 parts are the sepals j the five intervening larger ones are the petals. 



FIG. 183. Flower of a Larkspur. 184. Its calyx and corolla displayed ; the five larger 

 pieces arc the sepals j the four smaller, the petals. 



