THE 



DIFFERENT FORMS OF FLOWERS 



ON 



PLANTS OF THE SAME SPECIES. 



IlfTRODUCTION. 



The subject of the present volume, namely the dif- 

 ferently formed flowers normally produced by certain 

 kinds of plants, either on the same stock or on distinct 

 stocks, ought to have been treated by a professed botan- 

 ist, to which distinction I can lay no claim. As far as 

 the sexual relations of flowers are concerned, Linn^eua 

 long ago divided them into hermaphrodite, monoecious, 

 dioecious, and polygamous species. This fundamental 

 distinction, with the aid of several subdivisions in each 

 of the four classes, will serve my purpose; but the classi- 

 fication is artificial, and the groups often pass into one 

 another. 



The hermaphrodite class contains two interesting 

 sub-groups, namely, heterostyled and cleistogamic 

 plants; but here are several other less important 

 subdivisions, presently to be given, in which fiowers 

 differing in various ways from one another are produced 

 by the same species. 



Some plants were described by me several years ago, 

 in a series of papers read before the Linnean Society,* 



* "On the Two Forms, or Di- of Primula, and on their remark- 

 morphic Condition in the Species .able Sexual Eelations." ' Journal 



1 



